Wheels and Waves
by cherrygorilla
Summary: Lela and Tanner fell in love, shattering a rivalry as old as time as far as the beach was concerned. But was that enough to prepare them for the road ahead? The road where a fringe bikini and a pair of black aviators could alter the lives of the beach goers forever. Everything changed when Butchy and Giggles walked through the doors of Big Momma's hand in hand. Could they cope?
1. Chapter 1: Baker or Biker Boy

Blonde hair tumbled from her ponytail in waves that served as a painful reminder of the warmth of the sun, sea and sky she yearned to be surrounded by. The salt spray that clung to her hair, the fresh ocean breeze that filled her lungs: it called to her. But she couldn't answer; today was determined to keep her toes away from the sand and wood grain of her surfboard, to lead her away from familiarity and into the open arms of fate.

The tall windows of her family's bakery filtered blistering, late summer sunlight through their panes before splashing it across the flour-dusted floorboards. A pencil sketched lazily intricate doodles across a page, a radio played soft tunes throughout the cafe and she hummed the accompanying melodies as she worked. 'Worked' is a pretty loose term though considering that the bakery was as desolate as it could be. Not even the scents of her mom's infamous banana bread, fresh blueberry muffins, glazed fruit tarts or chocolate-laden cookies that filled every inch of the room and spilled out onto the street outside could tempt any possible customers. The only people she had interacted with today had been an elderly lady asking for directions, a rather persistent fruit fly that couldn't work out where the window was again and a stray tabby cat she fed a can of tuna to. Despite her mom deeming her fit to take charge of the business for the day whilst she and her dad shopped for new furniture, this wasn't exactly how she wanted to be spending the tail-end of her summer.

Her mind wandered to her friends at the beach, baking themselves in the sun as they splashed through the surf and lounged on a rainbow array of towels. But the tinkling ring of the bell above the bakery's door dragged it back to reality. Startled, she dropped her pencil and snapped the book closed. She straightened up to greet them but her stomach clenched as soon as she realised who it was.

"Uh, you guys open?"

Strange, it didn't sound like him. The almost comical accent she always heard him sporting seemed to have slipped.

"Ye- I mean yes, yes we are. Just a little…slow today, I guess."

She wrung her hands together below the counter to stop them trembling, but that didn't stop the shaking in her voice. Immediately kicking herself for getting so scared, she managed a small, albeit apprehensive smile.

"You uh… You guys do stuff for lunch?"

"Well I- uh, we have sandwiches."

Grabbing a menu from the counter she held it out to him like she was feeding a wild animal. He took it from her and she snatched her hand back before he could notice how badly it was shaking. She watched him warily as he scanned the menu, hating every second she felt her nerves eat into her a little more. He was just a biker, underneath all the usual bravado he was just another teenager like her. And besides, Lela and Tanner had been dating for at least a month now, this rivalry with the bikers and surfers had been put to bed. Sadly, the underlying tension hadn't.

The longer she stood and waited though, the more she began to realise that it wasn't just his voice that was different to what she was familiar with. His whole image felt strangely alien to her. Free from grease, his hair flopped down over his forehead, an oil-stained flannel hung open over a white t-shirt without a trace of bold leather or red fabric to be seen. The only thing that remained ever-true about the man in front of her were the scuffed biker boots lazily laced at his feet.

"You mind makin' me one? I don't wanna put you out of your way just for a sandwich."

Her gaze somewhat sheepishly rose back to meet his. It felt odd for him to be considerate. She could tell he felt awkward too. Perhaps that was the cause of the concern.

"You wouldn't be. I'm not exactly busy."

"You sure?"

She nodded, causing the stray strands of her messy ponytail to bounce at the sides of her face. He mustered a smile then. A rather placid smile, but a smile nonetheless. It wasn't something she'd seen him sporting very often, not like this anyway. Her shoulders relaxed and she felt her stomach unclench ever so slightly. He wasn't nearly as intimidating without all the leather, greasy crew members and smouldering grimaces.

"I'll take a bacon, lettuce and tomato then."

"You want that to go?"

She really didn't want to be the person to keep the big, bad biker boy waiting.

"...You want some company?"

Wait, did she imagine that? Or was he being serious?

"I...uh...I guess it would be nice. It gets pretty lonely in here sometimes."

He shuffled on the spot for a second, seemingly toying with the idea in his head. The Rodent with a hefty reputation and cool-as-ice attitude battling with this attentive, yet laid-back young man she still couldn't quite believe existed beneath the jet black aviators.

"...Well your company's arrived."

* * *

Stepping back out of the tiny kitchen, sandwich in hand, she found him perched on one of the barstools that lined the counter, playing with the corner of a paper napkin he had helped himself to. She slid the plate in front of him and shyly took a step back. After spending years trying to avoid kids like him, suddenly being faced with one in her empty bakery was rather jarring. Sure he was company and offering to be such was surprisingly kind, but now that he was actually here she didn't have a clue what to do.

After a quick 'thanks' and a few seconds of silence as he tucked into his food, he spoke up. "Is this like a summer job then?"

"Oh, uh, no. My family owns this place, they just didn't have anyone else to run it for the day. Usually my mom or aunt will be here taking orders, if that's who you were expecting."

"Nah, I wasn't expecting anyone; today's the first time I've seen this place. I just needed to grab something to eat on my lunch break 'cause I left mine at home. Lela's gonna kill me when I get back."

"Lunch break?"

"Yeah, I started workin' at the auto shop a couple of blocks down last week."

"For the summer?"

He let out a soft chuckle. "I hope not. Kinda hoping it's pretty permanent; I don't have any other plans and Lela's dreams of going to college aren't gonna pay for themselves."

Right, he'd just graduated. Even though she'd be in the same position he was at this time next year, the thought of being totally independent from school and the restrains of any remainders of childhood terrified her to say the least. There was something secure about the boredom of classes and late afternoon surf sessions with her friends, something she couldn't bear to think about letting go.

"Well are you enjoying it so far?" Hoping for an optimistic answer, she brightened her smile a little.

The chuckle returned. It had worked. "Yeah, sure. It's cars and bikes, I know it all like the back of my hand."

Then, to her dismay, the conversation fell flat. She knew absolutely nothing about cars and bikes other than that Rascal's car, which she caught a ride to the beach in every day, started to smell funny if he left it running for too long, so she couldn't really contribute anything useful. Not that he seemed to care; continuing to eat his sandwich without another glance in her direction.

Sheepishly she took a small step back and let her gaze fall to the floor. A sigh escaped her lips as the uneasiness of the atmosphere tore at her skin. This was ridiculous. He was just a human like her, there was no reason she should treat him any differently and there was no reason for him to do the same to her. Seconds passed as she mustered up enough courage to speak again but they dragged like hours. The back of her neck prickled with heat, she felt her cheeks flare red, but she spoke nonetheless. She may be small, but she was courageous. And apparently blatantly obvious.

"This is, uh, this is pretty awkward, huh?"

"What?"

"...This. Just us two... _talking_."

"...Yeah, I guess. It's not often I talk to one of you guys."

"You mean a surfer?"

He nodded through a mouthful of bread and her brow furrowed. A sense of indignation stirred in her stomach as the situation stewed. She was just another clone in his eyes: a dim-witted boogie boarder just like all her other friends and something about that made her ashamed, with herself and with him.

"Is that all you see me as?" she asked. Her tone had changed; no longer meek and polite, there was a bite to it.

"...What do you mean?" He seemed puzzled, then concerned when he noticed her change in expression.

"Do you really just see me as a surfer and nothing else? Are we all just the same to you?"

It took him a few seconds to answer, which surprised her; he seemed to be trying to think of an acceptable answer. "Well I don't really know you for much else. Like I said, it's not often I talk to you guys. I just stick with my crew."

"...It's pretty sad how we all still do that after everything Lela and Tanner did though, don't you think? They tried so hard to unite us all and after a week we all just went back to how it was before."

"We tolerate each other to keep 'em both happy. That's about as far as it went with my crew."

"'Tolerate'? That's as far as you guys will go? We're all human, the only thing that separates us is whether we like to ride a bike or a board, but we can't so much as hold a conversation because of some dumb rivalry we were all brought up on. It's stupid."

"Well I hate to break it to ya but I think we're holding a conversation right now," he replied after a few seconds, shooting her a teasing smirk as her frown melted into shock.

"I guess you're right. We don't really have much choice though; I'm the only other person in here."

"I had a choice. I could have gone back to the shop to eat with the guys in there... but here I am."

"...Yeah, you're right," she said, bashfully dropping her gaze and letting out a small, breathy laugh.

"And for the record, just 'cause my crew don't necessarily like all of you guys doesn't mean I don't. It's not always easy but if it makes Lela happy to give you guys a chance, I'm gonna try."

"You really care about her, don't you?" she said, smiling fondly to herself.

"Course I do, she's my baby sister."

"Well if anyone was going to be the one to get you to change your heart about the surfers it was always going to be Lela."

"Is it that obvious how she's wrapped me 'round her little finger?" he chuckled, somewhat embarrassed judging by the light flushing of his cheeks.

"Not in that sense, but it's really clear how much you two care about each other. It's sweet."

"I've been called a lot of things, but 'sweet' ain't ever been one of 'em," he smirked, seemingly amused.

"Well I didn't mean it like that I just-" She began to stumble over her words again, nervous she'd stepped across a boundary she had blindly been trying to avoid.

But to her relief he just chuckled again. "I don't mind… Just don't let my crew hear you say it."

"Alright," she said, finding herself chuckling along with him. Her blush had returned too. It felt strange talking to him so comfortably like this, but it was a good strange. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but all the courage that she had built up to initiate the conversation and the delight that it was a success so far had manifested as the distinct 'fuzzy feeling' in her stomach: warm and rewarding. "I wouldn't want to get in the way of that reputation of yours."

"I wouldn't want you to either," he snorted.

"I don't mess with people in general but a guy with a motorcycle called 'Butchy' is definitely not the kind of person someone like me would want to get tangled up with."

"Why? Too much of a bad influence?" He had a mischievous glint in his eye and that smirk of his was back.

"Not...necessarily. Just not someone I'd want to...get on the wrong side of." She struggled to answer, perhaps because she didn't even know what she meant herself. In a hope to ease some of the tension she seemed to have loaded into the conversation, she tried to add a little stab at humour. "My friends have been there and they said it wasn't much fun."

"Yeah, he sounds like a jerk, I'd stay away from him if I were you." His voice dripped with sarcasm but his confidence swelled; leaning back, squaring his shoulders and broadening that cheeky smirk.

"I didn't mean it like that."

"I know, I'm only teasing. And I know you're not taking me seriously anyway."

"What do you mean?"

"Well you're still here, aren't you?" He raised an eyebrow inquisitively as she giggled and dropped her gaze again. He could still tell she didn't feel totally comfortable around him though. Rather guiltily, he felt he should try to get to the bottom of it. "...I'm not as bad as you think I am, you know."

"I...I never said that you're bad."

"I know, but I can tell it's what you're thinking."

"I've grown up being told to stay away from bad boys with leather jackets and motorcycles, so when I've only ever known you to be on your bike in all that leather...that's all I've seen: a bad boy called Butchy." She paused and took a deep breath. Her gaze remained fixed to the counter; she couldn't bring herself to look at him. Somehow she could still tell he was hurt. "And I'm sorry for that."

That, however, surprised him. "Sorry? What are you sorry for?"

"For not being a better person. For not wanting to look past all that. For judging someone on their appearance and who they are around their friends... Because you're not like that at all."

"You think?"

"Yeah. You haven't done anything today that would make me think you're a bad guy."

"Well I've ditched the leather and bike, you might change your mind again when you see me back like that," he chuckled bashfully. He finally managed to catch her eye long enough to give her a genuine smile: a smile that lit up his eyes and creased his cheeks.

She noticed a smear of oil along his cheekbone and found herself smiling back as if by instinct. The warmth in her stomach stretched throughout her whole body, enveloping her in an embrace. It almost felt as if a light had been turned on.

"I'm still called Butchy though," he added, drawing a small laugh from her lips. "Can't do much about that."

"You could always change it, nicknames don't have to be forever… It is a nickname right?"

That was the first time she'd heard him laugh properly. It wasn't like the shy laughs she'd heard so far today and it certainly wasn't like the laughs when he was fooling around with his friends. There was something fascinating about it, to see him as carefree as he was. She liked it.

"Yeah, it's just a nickname, thank God," he laughed, finally managing to catch his breath a little.

"Well I thought I'd better check," she giggled. "So how'd you get it?"

"I just thought it made me sound tough when I was... God, how long ago was it now? Probably middle school, so I was like eleven. I didn't like my name and I guess sounding like a tough guy was more important to me back then than being myself."

"Why don't you like your name?"

"Back then I just didn't think it was cool enough. There was a kid in my class called Ryder and I was so jealous; Joey doesn't quite have the same ring to it."

"Wait you're name's Joey?"

"Shit I didn't mean to say that. You're sworn to secrecy now, you cannot tell anyone else, okay? Some of the Rodents don't even know that, so you've gotta keep that quiet." She could tell he wasn't as serious as he was making out he was though because that smile of his lingered on despite his best efforts to hide it.

"Okay, okay, it'll just be our little secret," she giggled.

"You gotta swear it...Giggles? That's what your friends call you, right? I ain't just made that up, have I? I'm sure I've heard 'em call you that."

Now it was her turn to laugh, or in this case giggle. "Yeah, that's right. Looks like you're not the only one with a goofy nickname."

"How'd you end up with yours then?"

"Do I really need to explain it?"

"Yeah okay, I guess you do giggle a lot," he chuckled.

"It's not annoying?"

"Nah, I like it," he said, mustering yet another smile. "You gotta have a real name though and since I shared mine…"

"It's Genevieve, which sounds a lot fancier than it is. I just get called Jenny by my family."

"Genevieve? I wasn't expecting that."

"No one ever is really, it feels too formal for me."

"No, I think it's great. Hell of a lot cooler than Joey anyway," he laughed.

She joined in, but she didn't necessarily agree. "Not for me, I like Joey… He sounds like a nice guy." The blush on his cheeks disappeared before she could relish it, but she knew it was there.

"And Genevieve sounds like a princess," he smirked, letting the mischievousness glimmer behind his gaze again.

"Okay, okay," she chuckled, before composing herself again. "But just for the record...I do like Joey. It suits you, well _this_ you, a lot more than Butchy does."

"Thanks...I think," he said, letting out a snort of laughter. The room was lulled into silence yet again, but this time it felt comfortable. Smiles settled onto their faces and the warmth from the sunlight that still tumbled through the window soaked into their bones. Neither one wanted to move, but a quick glance towards the clock on the wall told Butchy otherwise. "Uh, you going to be in here again tomorrow?" he asked, hopefully lifting his gaze from his crumb-scattered plate.

"No." His hope was shattered in one word and she deflated having to say it. "My mom will be here tomorrow. I'll be back at the beach; I think some of us are going to drive down the coast a little and have a picnic."

"Right… Well enjoy," he said, mustering a dejected, yet genuine smile.

But Giggles could sense the disappointment laced in his words. "You know, my mom would still make you a sandwich if you wanted one."

"Nah, it's fine. Lela will be more eager than ever to make sure I've got my lunch with me." It wasn't the sandwich he wanted to return for though. That was just a bonus.

"You heading back to the shop then?" she asked, disappointment edging into her own voice now.

"I'd better; my lunch break ends in a couple of minutes."

"You'd better get going then, I'd hate to make you late."

"Don't worry, it's only a few blocks away." Something told her that he was trying to linger as long as he could. Suddenly that fuzzy warmth in her stomach returned.

"...This was really nice," she said, smiling shyly. "Thanks for keeping me company, Joey."

"Any time, Genevieve," he smirked.

"...If I could do it again, I would," she said, hoping it would make leaving a little bit easier. She would have gladly come back in to work again if she knew she'd get to talk to him like this again. Who knows what she'd find out next time? But she knew how excited her friends were about this picnic. She couldn't let them down.

"So would I… How does the diner across town sound then?"

Hold on. Had she heard that right?

"...What?"

"Thursday night okay?"

She nodded but her brain was still trying to comprehend his previous question. Clearly her subconscious had grabbed the reins to steer her in the right direction whilst her brain and heart recovered.

"Great, I'll see you at seven, Genevieve."

And with that and an earth-stopping wink, he was gone, grinning smugly into the afternoon sunshine.

Her head was left spinning. She couldn't believe what had just happened. She couldn't believe they had spoken in the first place, let alone the fact that they were going to again. And she certainly couldn't wrap her head around the implications of this second outing and its possible labels. Her heart raced. The blood pounded in her ears. A thousand butterflies were released to wreak havoc in her body. But then her eyes landed on the leather jacket she didn't realise he had come in with. The leather jacket that was still slung over the neighbouring stool to the one he'd been sat on. Clearly he had been so fixated on setting up their dat- get together he had completely forgotten about it. He was too far away to call back though and she couldn't leave the shop unattended.

She could close a little early though…

* * *

Butchy trudged to his peg in the back room at the end of the day and stood in despair when he saw it was empty. His keys were in there, not only for his bike but for his house. He couldn't get back home or get in it. Shit, his wallet was in there too. And the jacket hadn't exactly been cheap itself. Frantically he tried to retrace his steps, and all too suddenly realised he knew exactly what had happened to it. He glanced out the window and saw the blue sky already beginning to bleed into baby pinks. There was no way in hell the bakery would still be open now, but there was a chance she might still be there closing it up. He bolted for the door but almost immediately skidded to a halt to avoid a collision with his boss, who had appeared in the doorway.

"You're off in a hurry, Bianchi," he said gruffly.

"I left my jacket at a cafe over lunch, I need my bike keys to get home," he said, praying the man would step aside to give him way. The seconds seemed to crawl by, each grating against his patience.

"Good job that nice young lady dropped it off for you half an hour ago then," his boss said, grinning impishly at him before presenting the jacket and clapping him on the back. "And it's a good job you screw your head on as tightly as the bolts on a bike; I've got a feeling you'd leave it at home otherwise."

"Thanks Sir." He breathed a sigh of relief and they shared a smile as he left the room. He slipped on the jacket and reached into the pocket to grab his keys, but instead his hand brushed against a small slip of paper. He didn't remember that being in there before. Out of curiosity he took it out and studied the neat cursive and little sketch of the Rodents logo before his face broke into a grin and that same warmth flooded his body.

 _'I thought I owed you an answer as well as your jacket. Thursday sounds great. I can't wait - G'_

 **Well, well, well. Long time no see, huh?**

 **I honestly didn't think I'd ever come back on here but a lovely PM and a brilliant idea sparked my inspiration again. So Giulia, this is for you.**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	2. Chapter 2: Surfer Sleepover Secrets

**I'm so sorry this took me so long to get up, life's just been really hectic recently and sadly that's meant I haven't had a great amount of time to write. But this chapter did end up being horrendously long so hopefully that sort of makes up for it. Enjoy!**

With her pastel duffle bag bouncing at her side, Giggles rounded onto the driveway without even thinking; she'd done it so many times now it was like second nature to her. Before she had even reached the front door she heard someone singing. She clocked the window cracked open, but was sure that even if it was closed she would still be able to hear them. She always felt as though there was never a dull moment inside the four walls of that house, but every time she arrived it was proved to her again.

A quick knock on the door prompted a cheery, yet weary cry out from the somewhat plump lady she spied through the kitchen window. "Kids, one of you get the door!" She brushed her hands haphazardly on her frilly, checkered apron before hurriedly touching up her hair in the reflection of the glass. Once she spotted Giggles smiling at her in amusement though, she let out a laugh at being caught and bustled back over to her dinner preparations just as the front door swung open.

Stood before her, as perfectly attractive as ever, grinning like an idiot was none other than Thomas Cole, or Tanner to most of the world. Dressed down to a tight-fitting t-shirt and garishly patterned board shorts, with his flawless golden brown hair tumbling down from its usual style in curls at the side of his forehead. He looked like he'd just had a shower; it wasn't usually that curly and his chiseled features were smoothed out to the point where she could make out faint freckles dusting the bridge of his nose.

"Hey Giggles, how's it hanging?" Leaning against the door frame with one arm, he ran the other hand through his hair as he shot her a devilishly handsome grin.

"Good, thanks," she smiled, letting out a breath she didn't realise she'd been holding. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"...How's it hanging?" Trying again seemed easier than having to explain her initial question, so she forcibly broadened her smile and hoped for the best. Luckily, it worked, as it always seemed to.

"Oh, great!" His reply came with one of his usual goofy laughs before the model-like smile returned.

Sometimes Giggles feared he had more air in his head than a beach ball did.

"Are you going to let the poor girl in, Thomas, or are you going to leave her out on the porch like a wet envelope?" She heard his mother call from the kitchen. Exasperation fuelled each word but Tanner just batted them away with a playful eye roll.

"I was getting to that, Mom," he replied before fixing his smile back and letting out a chuckle as he turned back to Giggles. "Come on in, I'll go get Carrie because she was too lazy to answer the door," he said, stepping aside to let her inside but raising his voice the further into his sentence he got until the singing in the living room stopped, the record scratched to a halt and a head of bouncing, golden curls marched into the hall.

"At least I'm not too lazy to get a fucking job," the owner of the curls bit back.

"Caroline, language! We've got company!"

"It's only Giggles, Mom, she doesn't mind. She's heard me say worse stuff anyway." She added the last part under her breath.

"Going to an audition for a drama school is not getting a job, idiot," Tanner muttered back.

"Ouch, _I'm_ an idiot? That hurts coming from you."

"And just when I was starting to miss you guys today," Giggles sarcastically chimed in with a laugh.

"Awww, I've missed you too, Gigs, I feel like I haven't seen you in weeks!" And before she could react Giggles was being smothered by the mass of curls as the person attached to them threw their arms around her neck, wrapping her up in a big hug.

"It's been two days," Tanner said flatly.

"Wow, thanks for that one, Einstein."

"Shut up, Carrie."

"Wow, Tommy, that job comment really got to you, didn't it?" She was teasing him at this point and she loved it, wearing a smug smile with great delight. Giggles couldn't always understand how quickly the pair of them could jump from being best friends, to being at each other's throats and right back again. But she supposed that was just part of the fun of being twins.

Caroline Cole, or Coral to her friends, shared many similarities with her brother, more than just her birthday anyway. The tanned complexion, lucious golden hair (although hers hung in flawless ringlets that tumbled down past her shoulders), oceanic blue eyes, occasional ditsy tendencies, even the dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose: they were like gender-warped mirrors, effortlessly flawless at all times. No wonder all the surfers practically worshipped the ground they walked on.

But behind all the perfection, they were just as human as she was, and they had some of the biggest, kindest hearts she'd ever come across. Sometimes they could be led astray or bruised a little, but one thing they could always be sure of was that they'd be there to pick each other back up again. So as ridiculous as they could be at times, Giggles knew she would always have a special place in her heart for these two; they were as good as friends came, the best in Coral's case anyway, which she definitely proved with her hugs.

"Is anyone else here yet?" Giggles asked through the mess of her best friend's hair.

"Nope, you've got me all to yourself," Coral grinned, finally stepping back and letting her breathe again.

"Wow, lucky me," Giggles teasingly replied, thickly coating each word with sarcasm.

"Hey, don't you two start ganging up on me," Coral said, flicking her disapproving gaze from Giggles, to her brother and back again.

"What can we say? You're just annoying," Tanner said, flashing her a wry smile.

"Touche," she said before they both let out a laugh. And just like that, they were the best of friends again. But Coral didn't linger in the moment with her brother for longer than a second before she gleefully spun to face Giggles. "Come on then, you can put your things down in my room and we'll get to work."

"What work?" Tanner asked as the two girls started scurrying up the staircase.

"Dude, I haven't seen her for two days, that means we've got at least two hours worth of catching up to do," Coral replied, looking at her brother like _he_ was the crazy one.

Coral was a little overbearing sometimes and wasn't a stranger to the term 'drama queen', but she was still one of the most genuine, loving girls Giggles had ever met. And besides, the extra insanities made her all the more fun to be around. She really didn't think that there was a better best friend out there.

* * *

Once her bag was unpacked and her space amongst the mass of blankets and pillows littering the floor was selected, Giggles found herself perched on Coral's pastel yellow and white bed whilst its owner sprawled out across the bedspread and spewed out tales of her escapades at the drama school audition she had attended that day. Coral had been dreaming about being an actress as soon as she knew what a television was and ever since the girls met in elementary school Giggles was always subjected to listening to story after story she dreamt up of her name in lights and scrawled across newspaper headlines. Today didn't seem to be any different, but the sentimentality and joy it carried with it gave her that fuzzy, warm feeling again. Rather like the fuzzy feeling she got yesterday when she…

Did she tell Coral about what happened at the bakery? About what happened with...him?

...Yes, she had to; she was her best friend, she had no reason to hide it from her. She had no reason to hide it from anyone; the rivalry was over, he was just like all her other friends… So why did she suddenly feel like she was carrying a huge secret around with her the second he left had the shop yesterday?

No, she'd been brave enough to talk to him yesterday, surely she could be brave enough to tell Coral about him today. Just, maybe not everyone else. Yet.

As soon as her mind began to wander away from Coral's tirade on 'the bitch with the beehive' who apparently 'thought she was fucking Audrey Hepburn the way she treated the audition' and towards her other friends from the beach, sure enough another knock on the front door could be heard. Promptly afterwards, four sets of pounding footsteps echoed up the staircase, all accompanied by boisterous chatter.

She didn't know how Tanner and Coral's parents allowed for these joint sleepovers to happen, especially when each child invited three friends, but she certainly didn't mind; they always promised to be thoroughly entertaining.

Since Coral's bedroom door had been left slightly ajar though, these four newcomers could hear everything that was being said, which meant that one of them stopped in their tracks, grinned at Giggles mischievously through the doorway before exclaiming, "Oh my god, no way! Is that who I think it is?"

Coral halted mid sentence to let out a laugh before gasping in mock amazement, "Oh my god, is it really you? Has my favourite person on the whole planet arrived right to my bedroom door?"

"I might suck with directions, but I can always find my way back here."

"Oh my god," Giggles said, playfully shaking her head and rolling her eyes at the pair.

"Okay, that's enough," Tanner cut in, clearly not impressed.

"You've been around each other for like ten seconds and you're already making me want to fucking hurl," Finn, whose hazelnut hair often resembled a birds nest that had been washed ashore (and today seemed to be no exception), huffed, glaring at Seacat, who had taken Coral by the waist and pressed her up against him, before wiping all annoyance away and grinning at Coral as soon as she spoke to him.

"Wow, it's nice to see you too, Finn," she said, plastering a sickly sweet, mocking smile across her face as she looped her leg up beside Seacat's hip, where he happily grabbed onto her thigh.

"Charmed, I'm sure," he chuckled.

"You guys doing okay?" Rascal piped up, a little shyer than usual, which Giggles noticed almost immediately.

"Yeah, I think so," Coral said, quickly glancing back at her and prompting her to nod along. "We're just waiting on Pearl and Shelley."

"Oh they're not coming 'til 8 ," Finn said, brainlessly picking at a piece of dry skin on his arm.

"What?! Why not?" Coral asked, suddenly dropping her act (and her leg from Seacat's grasp).

"I dunno," Finn mumbled, obviously no longer interested in the situation.

"I think they said something early about meeting those boys from the mall for dinner first," Rascal said, watching in dismay as Coral's expression turned from surprise to disgust.

"Oh, how nice," she said sarcastically, forcing the words out through her grimace. "Nothing quite like being an afterthought, is there?"

"Oh come on, Coral, they're out having fun," Tanner said.

"Yeah, just 'cause you're bitter," Seacat said teasingly, earning himself a light slap on the arm.

"Don't push it, you."

"So I'm guessing they're not joining us for dinner?" Giggles checked.

"Doesn't seem like it," Tanner agreed.

"That's fine by me, all the more food for us," Finn chuckled.

"Ugh, alright then, see you guys later," Coral said, ushering the teenage boys back into the hall as she began to close her bedroom door again.

"You want rid of us?" Seacat asked in mock incredulity.

"Yeah, you interrupted a great story-"

"-That I'm sure Giggles is just _dying_ to get back to," Seacat chuckled.

"Okay, that's enough," Coral said, stifling a grin as she shut the door properly and waited for her brother and his friends' laughter to disappear behind the click of the neighbouring door to his room. "Right, now back to the important stuff," she smiled as she turned back to Giggles and dove to regain her position on the bed.

Giggles sat back and let Coral run out of steam, sitting and listening in amusement to her friend's tall tales and showing her support at all the right points. Eventually Tanner and Coral's mom called them down to dinner, where all six teens hungrily attacked her infamous meatloaf before uttering their thanks and returning to the siblings' respective bedrooms.

"Ugh, I love my mom's meatloaf but I'm stuffed," Coral chuckled as she collapsed back onto her bed. "I don't think I can move."

Laughing along with her, Giggles perched back on the edge of the bed and wrung her hands together. As delicious as the food had been, the events of yesterday were still eating away at her. Her stomach felt hollow and her mouth felt dry. The burden of this secret wasn't being kind to her. But she didn't understand why she felt so guilty. Nothing happened, it was just a conversation. So why did she feel like she had to tell her?

"Uh, Coral?"

Her head lifted from her mattress and a weary smile stretched across her cheeks. "Yeah?"

"Can I...have some advice?"

Maybe it was some guidance she needed. Maybe that would help her come to terms with everything a little more: the guilt, the confusion, the nerves...the excitement. Some perspective would really ease her mind, especially if it came from her resident boy expert.

"Sure, what about? Just bear in mind I'm in no way qualified to help with most things and will just be brutally honest."

"I know, that's why you're so good at it," Giggles said, chuckling to herself.

"Come on then, fire away, what's on your mind?"

Okay. Deep breath, Gen. You can do this.

"...If you were going to meet a guy-"

Coral's eyes flew wide open. She shot upright, then right of the bed all together before running around to face her properly. "A guy?! Holy shit are you going on a date I don't know about?!"

"What? No, no, no, it's not a date. And I'm telling you now, so don't be mad; no one else knows."

"Oh my god of course it's a date, even if he didn't say it outright he'll be implying it; you know what guys are like!"

Coral's excited babbling did no favours for Giggles' raging blush though, which was beginning to spread across her face like wildfire. Coral was just over-exaggerating like she always does, it wasn't a date...was it?

"Oh my god, this is so exciting! Who's the guy? Do I know him? Wait, how do you know him? How haven't I found out about you two yet?"

"Woah, woah, woah, slow down," Giggles said with a nervous chuckle. She knew Coral tended to be over-the-top on the best of days, but this was like a whole new level.

"I can't, I'm too excited! Just tell me everything from the beginning!"

"There's not much to tell really," she said, weakly smiling before taking a deep breath and starting to spin out her story. "He just came into the bakery yesterday for lunch-"

"And came away with a lot more than just a cookie?" Coral cut in with a mischievous smirk and a wink.

"Oh my god no, just shut up and let me talk!" Giggles said, failing at her attempts to hold back any astonished laughter. Once again, she took a deep breath and set off to talk. "The place was empty so he asked if I wanted any company. I couldn't really turn him away so I said sure and we got to talking...things just sort of grew from there. We got along really well, surprisingly well, actually, so well that I didn't want him to leave. But he had to get back to work for-"

"He works?!"

"Sshh, I'm not done yet."

"Sorry, I can't help it."

"I thought I had just enjoyed it because I'd been so lonely that morning, but I think he liked it too because he asked me to meet up again."

"At the bakery?"

"No, the diner across town."

"Oh my god, when?"

"Tomorrow night."

"Holy shit, Giggles! You're going on a date!"

"Ssssh!" she hissed, conscious of the boys next door and the thickness of the separating wall. "And it's not a date, we're just going to talk...as friends."

"Yeah, sure, as _friends_ ," Coral said sarcastically, firing yet another wink her way. "What's he like then? Drop-dead gorgeous? Am I going to be jealous?"

"I don't know," she replied, her cheeks prickling with heat. She could only dread how pink they must be. "He was...charming and...kind, which was...unexpected."

"What's he called?"

"Joey." A smile flourished across her face as she said it out loud. She couldn't have stopped it if she'd tried.

Amidst squeals of eager delight, the girls sifted through Coral's wardrobe, picking outfit options or brainstorming similar ones from item's Giggles knew were back at her own house. Hours felt like they were ticking away, snaking through chiffon blouses and shift dresses with nerve-wracking menace. As she stood behind Coral, who was rummaging through the collection of shoes at the bottom of her closet, the reality of her fate gripped her. Now that she had said it all out loud it felt much more real. It was happening, this not-a-date was really going ahead and she was going to have to show up. Relief crashed down over her when she heard the knock at the front door signalling the arrival of the other two girls.

Sworn to secrecy, Coral dropped all date night planning activities and went to greet the girls and the stack of pizza boxes that accompanied them. Grateful for the break from the overwhelming pressure of assumptions that this meeting with Butch- Joey would bring, Giggles dropped back onto the edge of the bed and put her head in her hands. This was all too much. Why couldn't it just be simple? Why couldn't he just drop his reputation that petrified her so much? Why couldn't he have been clearer with his intentions for all of this? Why couldn't she just sit back and let it happen?

* * *

Pizza boxes were strewn across Coral's bedroom floor, forgotten as the girls chattered about their days and played with each other's hair. Giggles was so caught up in the hustle and bustle of thoughts in her head though that she struggled to contribute much to the conversation. From what she could gather, the guy that had asked Shelley out turned out to be a 'total douchebag', but his friend, who Pearl had tagged along with to keep him company was a 'total sweetheart', which meant that she gushed on and on about every little detail of him she could remember. Her platinum blonde ponytail bounced with glee every time she gasped and began to babble some more, whilst Shelley's head slumped further down the stack of pillows she had propped herself up on each time she rolled her eyes at her.

"He was so dreamy!" Pearl sighed, gazing blissfully off into the distance, no doubt already daydreaming about the boy, whose name Giggles seemed to recall being 'James'.

"Yeah, okay, we get it, you had a great night and I didn't," Shelley grumbled. But she couldn't help smiling anyway. And that smile only broadened when she hurriedly shuffled upright to bring up a new point. "Oh my god you'll never guess who was at Big Momma's with us though."

"Who?" Coral asked. Giggles could instantly tell her interest had sprung back to life at the prospect of some gossip.

"Sandy," Shelley replied with a smirk.

"Miss Sandra Dean herself?" Coral gasped mockingly.

"With a boy too!" Pearl chipped in gleefully.

"No way!"

"Yes way!"

"She must have finally found a man to live up to that lengthy list of expectations of hers," Shelley snorted.

"I just want a gentleman, someone who'll take care of me and sweep me off my feet," Coral said, impersonating the poor girl and setting Shelley off cackling with laughter. "God she's such a fucking prude," she then mumbled, rolling her eyes at her own impression.

"I know, remember when I was making out with Dale the other weekend and she started lecturing me about my inner purity and how I should be more ladylike?" Shelley said.

"Did she really?" Pearl asked.

"Yeah, the little bitch," Shelley huffed.

"Shell, that's a bit harsh," Giggles piped up, struggling to just sit there and let her friends attack this girl who wasn't even there to defend herself.

"I know, I know, but it's still true. She's just so irritating; I wish she'd mind her own fucking business."

"Oh but she can't do that because she has to pick up on everything anyone does that she wouldn't," Coral said mockingly, deciding to chime back in on the debate as she sat down at her vanity table and began to brush her hair.

"She has a very _unique_ way of living," Pearl added, but Giggles couldn't tell whether she was trying to defend Sandy or drive another stake through her personality.

"Yeah and she tries to shame everyone else into following it even though she's crazy," Shelley quipped, following her comment up with a rather malicious laugh.

"Little Miss Goody-Two-Shoes," Coral muttered, grimacing as she pulled the brush through her curls. "Ugh, she makes me want to barf."

The sweeping of brush strokes through Coral's hair came to a halt as a mischievous grin tore across her face. A few seconds later, as the laughter was dying down, she set the hairbrush back in its place and fixed the white headband Giggles remembered Sandy leaving behind after a sleepover quite some months back, into place. She must have forgotten to come and pick it up, no doubt just buying another or using a spare, not realising that this opened her up to a whole world of teasing behind her back.

"Oh my god Coral take it out, you look just like her!" Pearl gasped, shrieking with laughter.

But Coral had other ideas; the mischief swelled inside her, sparkling behind her eyes as music struck up and she began to sing.

 **Coral:** "Look at me I'm Sandra Dean, lousy with virginity."

Preening in front of the mirror and mocking the innocence of her supposed friend left Shelley and Pearl giggling away at Coral's antics, and Sandy's misfortune. They could hardly wait to join in when Coral sprung up from her chair and paraded back over to them.

Giggles, however, was finding it harder and harder to mask her discomfort with the situation. The surfer girls often commented on how 'bitchy' they bet the biker girl sleepovers are, but after being invited to one by Lela just a few days after she and Tanner first got together, Giggles was pretty sure that her own friends could give them a run for their money in that department.

 **Coral:** "Won't go to bed 'til I'm legally wed, I can't I'm Sandra Dean."

Feigning mock horror to her audience, Coral continued her song before springing onto the bed beside Giggles and shooting her a quick: "Watch it!" before she launched into her next impression.

 **Coral:** "Hey I'm Doris Day. I was not brought up that way. Won't come across, even Rock Hudson lost-"

 **Coral, Shelley and Pearl:** "His heart to Doris Day."

Known to look up to the star in question, Giggles could tell this was another dig at Sandy, as if the girls clutching at their chests and swooning before bursting into fits of laughter wasn't enough evidence in the first place.

 **Coral:** "I don't drink."

 **Shelley and Pearl:** "Ew!"

 **Coral:** "Or swear."

 **Shelley and Pearl:** "Ew!"

 **Coral:** "I don't rat my hair."

 **Shelley and Pearl:** "Ew!"

 **Coral:** "I get ill off of one cigarette."

And as Shelley and Pearl fell about pretending to hack and cough just as they had seen Sandy do when offered one, Coral hopped off the bed beside Giggles, accidentally bumping into her. Even though it didn't phase her one bit and she grinned at Giggles the second she turned back around, Coral still decided to use it to fuel her next line.

 **Coral:** "Keep your filthy paws off my silky drawers! Would you pull that crap with Annette?"

After ruffling the hem of her nightgown, giggling with Shelley and Pearl some more, mimicking Annette's (the stubborn girl from their homeroom) ample assets and signature sultry stare, Coral, with Shelley and Pearl in tow, scurried, tumbled and cartwheeled over to the windows, where she draped herself in the white chiffon lining of her curtains.

 **Coral:** "As for you Troy Donahue, I know what you wanna do! You've got no crust, I'm no object of lust-"

 **Coral, Shelley and Pearl:** "I'm just plain Sandra Dean!"

Cackling away at Coral's silly, suggestive dance moves, Pearl and Shelley watched in amusement, whilst Giggles watched in dismay, as she hurried back across to the other side of the bedroom, where she pinned herself up against the wall that joined to Tanner's room. Mock horror flew onto her face again as she pressed the back of her hand to her forehead. But it couldn't stay long because her mischievous grin soon broke its way back through.

 **Coral:** "Elvis! Elvis! Let me be! Keep that pelvis far from me! Just keep your cool now you're starting to drool-"

But Coral was interrupted, much to Giggles' relief, by the bedroom door swinging open and the four boys from the neighbouring room peering inside, all just as bewildered as the next. Clearly the obnoxiously loud laughter and the thumping on the wall from Coral's intentionally ridiculous pelvis swinging had drawn a crowd.

After having pulled up the hem of her nightgown as she paraded around her room during the song, Coral dropped it back down into place at the sight of the boys, one of whom was now sporting a particularly red face, and turned to greet them with a smile as Shelley and Pearl tried to subdue their laughter.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" Tanner asked, peering around at the group of girls like they had sprouted seaweed from their ears.

Coral, still in character, sauntered over to the boys and said without missing a beat, "Be cool, I'm Sandra Dean."

Finn snorted out a laugh from the hallway and Seacat just shook his head incredulously, finally piecing together the hairband, accent and snippets of song that had wriggled through the cracks in the wall. Tanner just rolled his eyes at his sister though and sighed helplessly, sending Giggles a quick pitying smile over Coral's shoulder.

"You all done now?" Seacat asked.

"We could go on," Shelley piped up.

"But we won't," Giggles said somewhat firmly, surprising a few of her friends with her boldness that she rarely found the courage to show. And since Giggles wasn't necessarily as outgoing as some of her friends, she felt as though the attack on Sandy's innocence was like an attack on her own too.

"Yeah, alright, I'm done," Coral sighed, taking out the hairband and running a hand through her curls to help them fall back into their natural place.

"Great, you wanna come next door then?" Seacat asked.

"Hey, don't go inviting people into my room," Tanner snapped.

"Fine," Seacat muttered, holding his hands up in surrender.

"...You guys want to come next door?" Tanner then asked, earning himself an eye roll from Seacat and a handful of giggles from the girls, who all promptly skipped after the boys into their room.

* * *

Shelley and Pearl's pizza boxes were next seen, significantly emptier this time, scattered across Tanner's bedroom floor amidst blankets, pillows, stray school books he hadn't bothered to tidy away last year and Giggles friends, who were each sprawled out in sort of lopsided circle and now deeply engaged in a combination of spin the bottle and truth or dare. Giggles never felt quite as extroverted as her friends, so when they brought out games like this to make their get-togethers a little more exciting her insides started to tie themselves into knots.

Luckily, she hadn't been picked yet. Shelley had been made to admit to hooking up with her math tutor, Joel, a sweet boy who was about to graduate with his virginity intact. Weeks of pleading eventually wore her down though, or so she said; Giggles was sure Shelley had had a crush on him anyway, but she didn't dare bring the notion up. Finn was made to go and prank call his ex-girlfriend, which had most of the group in hysterics whilst he fumed before and after the less-than-pleasant conversation with poor Penny, who Finn informed the group was in tears by the end of it. Tanner had to spill the details on his relationship with Lela so far, which weren't nearly as juicy as Pearl had hoped for, but pretty adorable in Giggles' eyes. Pearl's disappointment couldn't last for long though because she almost found herself vomiting after having to suck on Finn's toe as payback for suggesting Penny as the recipient of his prank call.

Still gagging, Pearl reached out to spin the empty beer bottle, which skidded to a halt in front of Seacat. "Perfect, truth," she said with weak maliciousness before retching into Tanner's wicker trash can.

"Hold on, I though I got to decide whether it was a truth or dare," Seacat said.

"Too bad, we're changing to rules," Shelley cut in with a cheeky smile as she held Pearl's hair away from her face.

"Fine, come on, what do you want to know?" Seacat sighed.

"What's _really_ going on with you and Coral?" Shelley asked without skipping a beat, eyeing him up with cheeky intent.

"Hey I thought this was Pearl's turn to ask the question-"

"She would have just asked the same thing anyway, wouldn't you, Pearl?" Shelley replied, nudging the blonde beside her, who nodded from inside the bin. Tanner hadn't delivered the gossip the two girls had been looking for so it appeared that they were searching elsewhere.

"Come on then, dude, spill it," Finn chuckled in amusement.

"I don't think I actually want to know," Tanner cut in.

"There's not much to know," Seacat said.

"Yeah," Coral agreed.

"We're not together anymore, what more do you want me to say?"

"Oh really? Because I'm pretty sure you were 'together' at Reef's house party last week," Shelley said.

"Oh well that's different-"

"Is it?"

"Look, just because we were making out doesn't mean that we're back together," Seacat shot back.

"You weren't just making out."

"Okay, and here's the part I don't want to hear about," Tanner cut in.

"Who did you hear that from?" Coral asked.

"Sandy," Shelley answered with a triumphant smirk.

"Of course," Coral muttered under her breath.

"And you believed her?" Seacat asked.

"Well you weren't exactly trying to be private about it," Finn added.

"Okay, fine. Look, stuff happens, especially at house parties with cheap alcohol. But that does not mean that we're dating again," Seacat said.

"Yeah, we're just...better as friends," Coral said, smiling across the circle at him.

"And more than friends when it suits you both," Pearl quipped, having recovered from her puking just in time to take another jab at the pair.

"You're starting to think like Sandy, Pearl, you'd better watch out; you two will be sharing headbands before you know it," Seacat retaliated.

But Pearl just rolled her eyes and shot back a swift retort. "Well I think you still have feelings for each other."

"Are you deaf?"

"Nope, just stubborn. I need solid evidence before I believe you, Samuel."

Whilst Giggles did think that more went on between her friends than a simple 'it just wasn't working out' when they decided to call their relationship off, she was pretty certain that, despite their drunken slip-ups, Coral and Seacat were over each other. She believed them in that respect; out of all the times she had spent with them after they had broken up, not a single one of them had been awkward and they were still as close as they had ever been. But she didn't think that Shelley or Pearl, who clearly had other perceptions of the situation, would appreciate her input, so she stayed quiet as the turn died down and the bottle was set in motion again.

It rolled to a stop in front of the only other person who hadn't contributed to the previous debate: Rascal, who had been sat there, glumly red-faced the whole time. As soon as the bottleneck singled him out his eyes flew wide. Something told Giggles that he didn't want to be playing this game any more than she did.

"Okay Pearl, here's your proof," Seacat began as a smirk flashed across his face. Giggles could see the inner workings of his brain spinning into overdrive as the plan was whipped up in his head. He looked across at Rascal with a casual grin and simply said: "Rascal, I dare you to make out with Coral."

Horror flickered in his eyes before his blush flared up again, raging across his whole face. He opened his mouth, perhaps to protest, but no words came out.

"Hey, I thought this was Rascal's turn," Shelley said.

"Yeah, why do I have to be involved?" Coral asked as the rest of the teens all began to raise their concerns and opinions.

"I-" Was all Rascal could manage to choke out before Seacat came to his rescue.

"Rascal, can I speak to you outside for a minute?"

Before Rascal could reply, Seacat hauled him to his feet and marched him into the hall, making sure to firmly shut the door behind him.

The minute passed, and then another, and another.

"Is he having to psych him up to kiss you?" Finn asked Coral now that the whipsers behind the door sounded like they were getting more intense by the second. He was already laughing by the time Coral leaned across to thump him on the arm, but just as she did so, the door opened again.

"Coral, get out here," a rather frazzled Seacat said.

"Why? Where's Rascal?" Coral asked, peering into the empty hallway.

"He's...chilling in the bathroom for a second, just get out here."

Judging by the state Rascal had worked himself up into though, 'chilling' is definitely not what Giggles expected him to be doing in that moment. Everything about this felt strange: the way Seacat was so set on making it happen, the way Rascal had lost all functionality at the mere prospect, the way Coral was so clueless about the whole ordeal. Rascal had been a little quieter than normal tonight but Giggles didn't see why this had triggered such a big reaction.

Coral slipped back into the room a few moment later and eventually so did Seacat and Rascal. An encouraging slap on the back set Rascal on his way and, with cherry red cheeks and a nervous smile, prompted him to resume his position in the circle. He awkwardly shifted in place as Coral shuffled towards him but managed to maintain his smile.

"You ready to do this then?" she asked.

"Uh…" Once again, the ability to speak seemed to have deserted him.

"Yes," Seacat prompted.

"Yes," Rascal repeated, clearly grateful to have just gotten a word out.

"It's okay, it's just a kiss. Don't worry," Coral said quietly, softening her sometimes rather brash personality and offering him a sweet smile he attempted to replicate. "Just...take your time."

A deep breath in, a deep breath out and what looked like a momentary self-pep-talk was all that was left before Rascal quickly bundled together enough courage to bite the bullet and reach forward to press his lips to her's. Although at first a little clumsy, Rascal gently cupped her waist and the back of her head with surprising swiftness. Coral found herself reaching out to caress his jaw too, swept up in the moment in a way she never could have predicted. No one could have really. What they expected to have been a quick kiss had almost immediately deepened, as if instinctively. Seconds passed, dragging like minutes as the teens gawped at their friends, but eventually they broke apart, shocked smiles still lingering at their lips.

"Holy shit, way to go, Rascal!" Finn exclaimed, setting all the teens off excitedly babbling about what they had just witnessed, or in some cases taken part in.

But alas, eventually the novelty died down and the bottle was spun yet again, this time landing directly in front of Giggles. Her stomach dropped. She should have known; it was impressive for her to escape for as long as she did, but she couldn't stay immune.

"Come on then, Giggles. Truth or dare?" Tanner asked her. Rascal was still too busy recovering from his kiss to care to take his turn, so he handed the responsibility over to Tanner, who was tending to play the game a little more sympathetically than certain others, much to Giggles' relief.

"Hey, how come Giggles gets a choice?" Seacat asked in indignation.

"'Cause I gave her one," Tanner retorted, unphased by his friend's annoyance.

"Ugh, we're not playing it like that anymore, Tanner. Keep up," Shelley yawned, resorting to braiding her hair now that the excitement of previous rounds were wearing off.

"Yeah, Giggles, I think we'll give you a...truth!" Pearl chipped in with a grin.

Oh god, that meant there was something they wanted to find out about her. Thankfully Pearl and Shelley hadn't arrived when she confessed about her bakery boy to Coral, so it couldn't be about that. At least she knew that topic was safe. But alas, fate wasn't being so kind to her today.

"Perfect," Seacat grinned, glancing across to Finn, who delivered the question that made Giggles' heart stop.

"Giggles, who's this boy you're going on a date with tomorrow night?"

Holy shit.

"What?!"

"You're going on a date?!"

But Pearl and Shelley's shrill shrieks of delight were just white noise beneath the pounding of blood in her ears.

"How did you…" she trailed off, struggling to even fathom a way to respond. She was in shock to say the least, but more horrified at being exposed in such a way. Out of control and out of her depth, she didn't know what to do.

"You didn't shut Coral's door properly after dinner," Tanner said, feeling rather guilty after seeing how embarrassed she looked. If she felt as bad as she did she dreaded to think of how she looked.

"You sneaky little shits, why were you listening to our conversation?" Coral snapped.

"I heard 'date' and got curious," Seacat confessed.

"Yeah 'cause you thought Coral was off out with another boy and were getting ready to take him down," Pearl cut in with an amused snort of laughter.

Seacat didn't bother to respond, instead just turned his attention to Giggles to ask, "Why be so secretive about it though? You could have just told us."

"I didn't want to talk about it at all really," Giggles admitted, dropping her gaze to her lap.

"Aww, why not?" Pearl asked, placing a hand on her forearm, trying to show her concern for the girl.

"You're not embarrassed, are you?" Shelley added with similar concern.

"No, it's not that it's just...it's just- ugh, it's not that big of a deal. It's not a date at all, we're just going to meet up and talk to…get to know each other a little more."

"More?" Rascal asked, suddenly just as curious as the others now.

"Yeah, we talked briefly while he ate lunch at the bakery. We got along pretty well so he wanted to meet up again to talk more. I told him I wouldn't be there today so he suggested tomorrow night, that's it, okay?"

She left out the part about him being a biker. She left out the part about the way they smiled at each other. She left out the part about the fuzzy feeling she still felt just thinking about it. She left it all out because it terrified her: what they'd think, how they'd react, but most of all how she felt about it. She knew her friends were just trying to be supportive, but judging by their previous attitude to the bikers that she knew still lingered beneath the surface of pleasantries for Tanner's sake, she didn't really fancy admitting who she was going to be seeing tomorrow night.

"This is so exciting, Giggles! Why didn't you tell us?" Pearl gushed.

"Yeah, it sounds pretty nice to me," Finn agreed.

"You shouldn't hide it, you should be happy," Tanner said with a smile.

But before she could stop it, her heart took control of her brain and mouth and she found herself crying out, "But I'm not!"

Silence fell over the group, all stunned into submission.

"I don't know how to feel about it, any of it. I don't know how to feel if it is a date or it isn't. I don't know how I feel about just meeting up with a guy I barely know. I don't know how to feel about tomorrow night in general. I don't know how I feel about him! It's...a lot to process and I don't know how to do that."

Pearl's reassuring hand was topped by a hug from Coral, who then went on to say, "It's overwhelming, we understand. We probably haven't helped much, but that's because we know how much of an great girl you are and we're just excited someone else has seen what we all do."

"Yeah, so whoever he is, he's one hell of a lucky guy," Tanner agreed.

"I'm just not good with…spontaneous things like this. It's all happened so quickly I still don't feel like it's real. I need more time to process things like this," she admitted with a small, shy laugh.

"Aww it's alright, sweetie," Pearl cooed. "You don't have to rush into anything, just go along and see what happens!"

"That's easier said than done," Giggles said with a sigh. But no sooner had she finished talking she felt the urge to sing. The melody pulled through her, she couldn't escape it. The words came to her without a second thought and she had no choice but to let them out.

 **Giggles:** "I stick with real things, usually facts and figures

When information's in its place I minimise the guessing game"

"Guess what?" she asked, looking around at her group of friends, who all eagerly leaned forwards for an answer.

"What?"

But all that they got was more helpless singing.

 **Giggles:** "I don't like guessing games or when I feel things before I know the feelings

How am I supposed to operate if I'm just tossed around by fate?

Like on an unexpected date!

With a stranger who might talk too fast

Or as me questions about myself before I've decided that

He can ask me questions about myself

He might sit too close or call the waiter by his first name

Or eat oreos but eat the cookie before the cream

But what scares me the most, what scares me the most

Is what if when he sees me, what if he doesn't like it?

What if he runs the other way and I can't hide from it?

What happens then?

If when he knows me, he's only disappointed?

What if I give myself away to only get it given back?

I couldn't live with that

So I'm just fine, inside my shell-shaped mind

This way I get the best view

So that when he sees me, I want him to"

Now almost pacing around Tanner's bedroom, Giggles' worries surrounding the situation started to consume her. She barely knew But- Joey, she had little to no experience when it came to spending time with guys she hadn't known for years already and not to mention the fact that she didn't know where to begin when it came to what his intentions were and what their meeting was defined as. Everything about it just filled her with anxiety; she liked structure in her life, a path she could plan. But with this, with confused feelings and an ever-growing bundle of nerves in her stomach, there was nothing she could plan. Uncertainty felt as if it was taking over her life and the lack of security was terrifying.

Coral, who was probably the most informed of Giggles' friends on the topic at hand, could see the inner-turmoil she was putting herself through and tried to offer some reassurance. After all, Coral had been in situations like this with guys plenty of times and it definitely wasn't as big of a problem as Giggles was creating for herself. She just hoped that maybe with a little bit of encouragement her friend would recognise the error in her ways and relax enough to actually go out and enjoy herself. "Giggles, don't you think you're being a little, I mean maybe just a tad-"

"I'm not defensive!" Alas, Giggles didn't seem ready quite yet to reason with differing opinions, especially when she didn't even understand her own yet. So instead she resorted to snapping out a response before more of the melody was dragged out from her without warning.

 **Giggles:** "I'm simply being cautious; I can't risk reckless dating

Due to my miscalculating why a certain suitor stands in line

I've seen in movies, most made for television

You cannot be too careful when it comes to sharing your life

I could end up a miserable wife!"

"Gee, Giggles, it can't be that bad, can it?" Pearl said, shocked to say the least by her outburst.

"Yeah, it's just one little dat- I mean, catch-up," Shelley said, managing to stop herself before she slipped up and made the situation even worse.

Noticing the genuine surprise that had overcome her friends' faces, Giggles managed to shoot them a quick apologetic look before launching into a continuation of the musical rendition of her woes that was growing more and more frantic by the second.

 **Giggles:** "Sorry girls but he could be criminal!

Some sort of psychopath who escaped from an institution somewhere where they don't have girls

He could have masterminded some way to find me

He could be colour blind!

How untrustworthy is that?

He could be less than kind

Or even worse he could be very nice, have lovely eyes, and make me laugh, come out of hiding

What do I do with that?"

Her panicked tirade, fuelled by worry that had now warped itself into something too bizarre to recognise, soon came to a halt when she actually took a moment to think back to the moment this had all stemmed from: the moment she had been asked out on this 'date' in the first place. Not only that, but how she felt in that moment, how _he'd_ made her feel. Transported back into the bakery on the hazy summer afternoon, sweet scents filling her nostrils, laughter erupting from her mouth, the warm, fuzzy feeling that seeped from her stomach throughout her whole body as she lost herself in those big brown eyes…

She felt as if she was falling, slipping right out of reality, and that's what she found so scary. It felt too good to be real, too wild and exciting to predict or understand. This feeling was out of control, she didn't know what to do with it.

She wondered if he felt the same.

No, he couldn't; that would be ridiculous. Big, bad Butchy, the guy who heads up a biker gang and gets into fights every other night of the week couldn't possibly get nervous about seeing a girl.

...But could Joey?

 **Giggles:** "Oh, God what if when he sees me, I like him and he knows it?

What if he opens up a door and I can't close it?

What happens then?

If when he holds me, my heart is set in motion?

I'm not prepared for that; I'm scared of breaking open

But still I can't help from hoping to find someone to talk to, who likes the way I am

Someone who when he sees me, wants to again."

Finally the song came to an end and Giggles felt like she could breathe again. But with her friends' occasional serenades and ever-growing smiles, they seemed to be more excited about tomorrow night than she was now, although a little more supportive than before.

"You'll be fine, Giggles," Tanner said, stepping up beside her to loop his arm around her shoulders. "He's a lucky guy, you'll both have a great time."

"Yeah, just try and enjoy it!" Pearl grinned.

"Don't let those nerves get the better of you; it's not worth it, just have fun," Rascal said.

"And if he's an asshole just leave; you're better than that," Seacat added with a chuckle.

"Make sure you tell us all about it when you get back though!" Shelley said.

"If she wants to, Shell," Finn said, playfully shaking her head and giving her a pointed look.

"Just be got out and enjoy yourself. Show him the Giggles we all know and love because it'd be pretty damn hard for him not to love her too," Coral finished with a smile, pulling her forwards and wrapping her into a hug.

"Thanks guys," Giggles sighed, feeling much better now that the jumble of thoughts in her head had been cleared and her friends had sufficiently boosted her self-confidence.

Now all she had to do was get through tomorrow night.

...And apparently the rest of this game of truth or dare.

"Right, Coral," Finn said, deciding to set the teens back on track with their game again. "You're the only one who hasn't had a turn in round one yet-"

"Round one?!" Pearl squeaked.

"Yeah, buckle up, blondie, we've got all night yet," he chuckled before turning back to Coral. "So, dare."

"I'm listening," Coral said with a challenging grin.

"You up for seven minutes in heaven with Rascal?"

Thankfully for Giggles, this suggestion sent the group of teens into hysterics of all natures, which definitely helped to get them off her tail. She knew they just cared about her, but sometimes their excitement could get a little overwhelming, and they didn't even know the whole story yet.

After that night she decided that this was something she'd have to deal with on her own for a while. Not that she didn't want her friends' support, she just felt like her feelings were too new and fragile to be eagerly tossed around like a beach ball just yet. For now she wanted to just test the waters; this could all still be for nothing.

But the warmth that kept flourishing in her stomach at the thought of spending more time with him seemed to whisper that it could just be the start.

 **There you have it! I know it doesn't have any Butchy and Giggles moments directly but she sure is thinking of him a hell of a lot and I thought it would be fun to give a little bit of insight into her life with her friends and the way that I'll be portraying them in this story. So hopefully you liked that! And don't worry, if you missed Butchy and Giggles then next chapter I'll be moving on to their date so you'll have plenty of stuff to look forward to.**

 **I used two songs in this chapter because I'm extra and too obsessed with musicals so the first one is Look At Me I'm Sandra Dee from Grease which I ever so slightly tweaked so it wasn't _so_ on the nose and the second on is called When He Sees Me from the musical Waitress. I thought they were cute and fitted well with the feelings and characters in this chapter and since I can't get enough of songs from musicals I didn't hold back.**

 **I think that's all from me this time though. Thank you to TheLandOfAllDreams for your continued support; it means a hell of a lot! And I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you thought!**

 **Until next time, thank you for reading!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	3. Chapter 3: Diner Dash

Keys clattered onto the hall table, a leather jacket was slung over the banister and a worn pair of boots were kicked off beside the welcome mat. Without skipping a beat, heavy footsteps raced up the stairs and the tired, rather sweaty young man practically marched straight into the shower.

"Hey, Butch. You want anything?" Lela called from the hallway a couple of minutes after hearing him emerge from the bathroom. "I was just about to make a start on dinner- What are you doing?" She appeared in the doorway to her older brother's room holding an empty mug with a rolled up magazine tucked under her arm. Her hair hung loosely over her shoulder, her eyes sparkled with intrigue but her head was cocked to the side in confusion.

"I'm goin' out," Butchy muttered, catching her gaze in the mirror before going back to fixing his hair.

"When?"

"In a couple minutes, why?"

"So you don't want dinner?"

"Nah, I'll grab something while I'm out."

"And when exactly did you plan this?"

"A couple days ago."

"And you didn't think to maybe tell me before now?"

"Geez, Lela, how many questions you got for me? I'm just goin' out, not gettin' interrogated," Butchy snapped, sighing in frustration as he finally turned to face her.

"I was only wondering," Lela muttered with a frown.

A lull in the conversation was soon filled with a heavy sigh, where she dropped her gaze. Butchy smoothed the remaining stray hairs into place and checked his reflection once more before pushing past her and into the hall. She scurried down the stairs behind his heavy footsteps but lingered on the bottom step as he grabbed his leather jacket and slipped on his boots.

"Well...I guess I'll see you later then," Lela said somewhat forlornly as her brother absentmindedly grabbed his keys.

"Maybe, don't wait up for me," he said, reaching for the door handle.

"Don't do anything stupid," Lela replied, knowing his evening escapades usually involved a rally with a handful of the Rodents, followed by a bust up or near-miss with a rival crew.

Little did she know that tonight's events were far from that.

* * *

It was a very rare occurrence for Butchy to be anything but late. On-time was practically a miracle. But he sped into the diner's car park a full thirty minutes before the arranged time. He popped open the seat compartment, dropped his helmet inside and, after pausing for a moment of thought, shrugged his leather jacket off as well and rolled that up to place inside too. Rummaging around in the compartment allowed him to dig out his spare bottle of cologne and after a swift application, the compartment was shut, his keys slid into his back pocket and he sauntered into the diner to grab the booth he'd reserved, masking the nerves he couldn't and wouldn't even think about trying to understand with a cocksure smirk.

* * *

Sky blue fabric pooled around Giggles' thighs as she fidgeted with her hands in her lap. The engine of her dad's car stuttered to a halt. She knew that they'd arrived but she didn't dare look up to confirm it in case the butterflies in her stomach tried to make a break for it.

"There you go, Sweetpea," her dad chuckled, smiling across at his daughter fondly. "Have fun with your friends, just don't stay out too late."

"Thanks, Dad," she managed as she unbuckled her seatbelt.

"You did tell your friends I offered them a lift, didn't you?" he then asked as she turned to exit the car.

"Yeah...why?" Giggles asked, stopping her tracks as her cheeks began to burn with embarrassment.

"I was just wondering how they would be getting here if Ryan's car's in the shop."

"I...uh, I think Tom and Carrie's dad had already offered them a ride," she eventually managed, trying to conjure up some sense to spin in amongst the lie. Luckily for her, her dad knew better than to look into anything his daughter said too deeply.

"Brett's always on it, isn't he?" he chuckled, accepting his daughter's response without a second thought. "Well, if you guys need a ride again in the meantime, you know what to do, sweetheart."

"I know, 'just give you a call'," Giggles said with a forced smile.

"Love you, Gen."

"Love you too, Dad."

"Remember your curfew!"

"I will!"

And with that, she slipped out of her dad's car and shut the door behind her. The metal felt cold against her skin; it prickled with anticipation, stung with nerves. Her lungs didn't feel like they could hold enough air, her brain didn't feel like it could comprehend the simplest sentence, her legs didn't feel like they could carry the weight of a beach ball, and although she'd been known to be tossed around like one, the weight of her body and all the thoughts racing around her head was quite significantly different. But she took a moment to herself: a moment to pause. And in that moment she took a deep breath that filled her lungs and pumped the blood back to her brain. Confidence, albeit a tiny amount, swam back through her veins and was enough to propel her forwards. Her legs wobbled with each step, but they were moving and she was moving with them. Thank god she'd decided against the heels.

The walk to the door felt excruciatingly long, but before she let her nerves get the better of her again she choked the butterflies back down and pushed it open. Immediately she was hit with the scent of salted fries and burger mustard, the stickiness of the black and white checkered floor, the bustle of busty waitresses with tight pin curls and the sound of flirtatious clinkings of acrylic nails against metal milkshake cups and clicking buttons from the jukebox as another song was selected. When her eyes drifted over to the jukebox though a fresh flock of butterflies emerged from their chrysalises.

There he was, lazily propping himself up on the jukebox with one arm as he flicked through the song selection. All of a sudden it became real, terrifyingly real. She was really here, and so was he. His invite had been genuine and this evening was whatever they were about to make of it. Her confidence disappeared in an instant as soon as that hit her. But when a record scratched, a new song began to play and he glanced over to the doorway they locked eyes and suddenly she wanted to melt into a puddle beside the 3-day old ice cream stain at the front door.

He strolled over to her as she tried to stop her limbs from shaking and mask her terror with a smile. But the second a smile fell into place on his face she found herself incapable of not grinning back.

"Hey," he said, stopping a few feet away from her. He dug his hands into the pockets of his jeans and ever so slightly cocked his head to the side. Her eyes roamed over his body, taking in his relaxed stance she would have loved to be able to replicate, his blue t-shirt clinging to his biceps and the absence of his leather jacket - yet another thing to smile about; something told her that had been a conscious decision.

"Hey."

"You were gettin' me worried; I was startin' to think you weren't gonna show," he admitted with a somewhat bashful laugh.

"I was thinking the same thing, I thought I might have ended up spending the night by myself," Giggles said with a shy smile that flooded her cheeks with peachy embarrassment again.

"Well luckily, or unluckily, for you, you've got yourself some company...and a booth in the back corner with your name on it," he said, flashing her a smile that sent the butterflies in her stomach on a rampage. He was charming in a way she'd never experienced before. It sort of caught her off guard...but she liked it. She liked it a lot.

"Sounds perfect."

* * *

A waitress soon sauntered over to their table to take their order, pursing her cherry red lips and tucking her pencil back into the mass of fiery curls that were somewhat tamed by the hat that she had wedged on top of them before collecting the pair's menus, not so subtly shoving her chest in Butchy's face, and winking at him flirtatiously as she turned to strut away.

Giggles watched him intently between dropping her gaze to the table in embarrassment and dragging it back up again out of curiosity. He seemed to play along with the waitress a little, smiling smugly at her as their eyes locked onto one another's. But as soon as she turned her back he muttered something to himself and rolled his eyes, immediately switching his attention to playing with the corner of his napkin.

Just like he did in the bakery, she thought to herself.

"So," he then said, clearing his throat and snatching her attention. "You gonna warn me about your friends hidin' in that booth over there now or am I gonna have to find out about it tomorrow?"

"What?" Giggles' stomach plummeted to the floor. Her body felt cold but her cheeks burned furiously. Had they seriously shown up to spy on her? After everything she'd-

"Relax," he chuckled. "I'm only kiddin'."

She couldn't have let out a bigger sigh of relief if she'd tried.

"You've got me worried now though," he continued. "Sounds like it's something you'd expect 'em to do."

"Well they're pretty excitable, I don't know if they'd go that far, but given the circumstances I wouldn't put it past them to consider it," Giggles admitted, starting to feel herself relax into her surroundings a little more now that they were starting to get a conversation going.

"Did you tell 'em about tonight?"

Now that was a loaded question.

"I...uh, I said I was going out…" Her mind went blank, too preoccupied with watching his expression change as he tried to read hers.

"With me?" he asked.

"With...a friend...for a catch-up."

Somewhat of a smile returned to his face. "I'm a 'friend' now?"

"I don't know...I guess so," she replied almost hopefully, feeling herself start to blush again.

"You were braver than me then."

"What do you mean?"

"Well you pretty much told your friends everything apart from my name. I just said I was staying over at the shop to work on my bike."

"Why? ...You weren't embarrassed were-"

"No," he jumped back in with definite certainty. "No, not embarrassed. I dunno...I guess I just didn't think they needed to know; it's none of their business who I want to spend my time with," he finished, flashing her a small smile.

"And you want to spend it with me?"

"Well I invited you here, didn't I?" he challenged with a smirk.

"You've got me there," she giggled.

"Don't sound so surprised. Big, scary bikers like milkshakes and talking to pretty girls too." Although he was chuckling to start with, his false confidence got the better of him and when he actually realised what had come out of his mouth he let out a sort of awkward cough to clear his throat and dropped his eyes to the table. He rubbed the back of his neck and started to play with the corner of the napkin again as all the butterflies in Giggles' stomach seemed to multiply by thousands. She was worried she might choke on one if she tried to talk. But something came over her and she found her lips moving without even realising it.

"You're not that scary, at least not any more. Getting to know you a bit more has helped."

"Yeah, that's the problem with havin' a big reputation: underneath it all I'm not really who you think I am."

"I don't mind; I like what's underneath it all."

They were even now; both had taken the plunge into somewhat expressing their feelings, of untold nature, to one another. Yet again, the comfortability of the situation increased. Butchy felt himself slouch a little further into his seat and Giggles lost a little bit of her anxious stiffness.

"And just for the record, I did tell them your name," she added.

His eyes flew wide. "You did? What- er, what did they say?" For someone who usually seemed so cocksure, acting nonchalant appeared to be rather difficult.

"Not much, they thought that Joey, the sweet guy who gave up his lunch to keep me company, sounded pretty cool," she said, finding enough courage by the end to muster up a smirk.

Butchy looked at her for a second, taking in what she'd said, before an amused grin broke across his face. Just as he opened his mouth to retaliate though, the provocative redhead returned with their drinks. She set Giggles' milkshake down with little to no care, but took her time laying Butchy's soda down in front of him, brushing his hand as she drew hers away. This time he didn't make eye contact. So, in retaliation, she threw two straws down on the table and swung her hips furiously as she stomped away. Their hands fumbled as they both grabbed for a straw, awkwardly laughing as oxytocin raced through their bodies, although to them it just felt like liquid sunshine: liquid sunshine that they so desperately tried to just ignore. Giggles reached them both before him though and promptly whisked them off the table. Although a little bewildered at first, Butchy soon found himself smiling again when she dropped them both into her milkshake and pointed one in his direction.

"A milkshake too? It must be my lucky day," he grinned.

* * *

They dipped french fries in their milkshake until their fingers were slick with grease and talked until their jaws ached, discussing topics they knew they were both comfortable with: Giggles' family's bakery and Butchy's job at the auto-repair shop. They were practically experts in each other's fields by the end of their meal because neither one had dared to bring something new to the table. But then again, why would they want to risk that when things seemed to be going so well?

If familiarity was a signal of things going well though, their night was about to take a turn for the worst.

"I told you, if you want that hot fudge sundae then just get it," Butchy said as he watched Giggles longingly looking at the dessert menu again.

"I know but I've already eaten so much tonight. Plus it's a lot of money for something I probably won't even be able to finish-"

"Hey, don't worry about the money. I've got it covered, remember? I'm a working man now," he chuckled before adding, "And besides, who said you'd be having it all to yourself?"

She did what she did best and giggled in response as he quirked one of his eyebrows and got up to go and place the order with one of the waitresses behind the bar since their previous waitress had clocked out of her shift, leaving them with nothing but a dirty look as she slapped their cheque down and snatched up the tip. But as she found herself gazing fondly at him as he walked away, the look of bliss soon slipped from her face when a tall boy with scruffy chestnut hair, scarred skin and a scuffed leather jacket slithered out of a nearby booth and approached him. They were too far away for her to be able to tell what they were saying, or who this guy even was, but from the looks on their faces they didn't appear to be on good terms. Voices started to raise and before Giggles knew what was happening the boy shoved Butchy and one of the waitresses started to yell. Butchy said something to the guy that she prayed wasn't a threat then stormed back over to her.

"Sorry, I- uh, I think we should get out of here," he mumbled, fumbling as he tried to gather his belongings together.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, starting to grab her things too. She knew it wasn't but the thought of his reassurances eased her mind.

"Yeah, I'll explain later, let's just...go some place quieter first," he said, glancing over his shoulder to check on the guy, who had gone back to his table and was now crowded by more leather-clad teens.

They both left in silence, with Giggles leading the way and Butchy following closely, almost protectively, behind. But once they were clear of the steps leading down from the front door, he soon stepped into stride beside her.

"Sorry about that," he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"It's alright...better that than starting trouble."

"I didn't mean for the night to get...cut short like that," he said apologetically before stabbing at a joke by adding, "I thought we'd have at least been able to get dessert."

"It's fine, really. I still had a great time," Giggles said with a shy smile.

"Had?"

"...Yeah, why?"

"Well...it doesn't have to be over yet… Unless you want it to be over-"

"No, no of course not. I just thought that, you know, given the circumstances...this would be it."

"You want this to be it?" he asked with a playfully-challenging tone.

"...No," she admitted after a small pause. "I feel like there's more to 'Joey' I haven't got to hear about yet," she added with a playful grin.

"I thought you might say that," he chuckled, coming to a stop in front of his bike. He popped open the seat compartment and took out his helmet, that he then handed to a rather startled Giggles. "Hop on then," he said with a devilish smile.

"On that?" she squeaked in surprise.

"Well I don't have a flashy car, so this'll have to do," he said, before noting her expression and changing his tone slightly. "Don't worry, I've been riding this thing for years, I know what I'm doing."

"Well...I suppose that if I was ever going to get on one of these with someone, I should be safest with you, right?" she said, attempting to reassure herself as she pulled the helmet onto her head. God, had she really just agreed to this?

"You said it, not me," Butchy chuckled, securing the helmet in place and guiding her towards the bike. A few brief instructions and a cheeky smile later and before she knew what was happening Butchy was straddling the bike and revving the engine. Something shot through her like a jolt of electricity, but whether that was fear or excitement was yet to be determined. "Hold on."

At first Giggles was taken aback. Was that another instruction or had their evening taken a hard right turn into unknown territory? Skeptically she reached out her trembling hands and loosely looped them around his torso. But as he pulled out of the parking space, out of the car park and onto the main road, revved the engine again and sped off she very quickly realised that it was an instruction she should have paid much closer attention to. She locked her arms around his abdomen and buried her head into his back as the wind whipped past her and the wheels juddered along the road surface beneath her. Her milkshake felt as if it may threaten to make another appearance.

"You okay?"

Giggles was surprised she could hear him over the blood pounding in her ears and the wind ripping at her clothes. Her instinct was to say 'No, absolutely not!', but as she dared to bring her head up at the sound of his voice and saw the world rushing past around her, tasted the sheer exhilaration of weaving through traffic beneath an inky sky and felt his body pressed up to hers...she was convinced that was an ab she could feel and boy did his cologne smell good-

"G, you good?"

"Y-yeah, I'm good," she finally managed to say, letting a smile spread across her face as she hugged him even tighter and slipped away into the night.

* * *

"Where are we?" Giggles asked as Butchy helped her off his bike and lifted the helmet from her head.

"Only a mile or two down the shore from Big Momma's. This part of the beach is better at this time. Well, it's a lot quieter anyway."

"Not very well-lit though," she retaliated, finding it hard to find her footing as she tried to follow him down the rocky pathway to the sand. Her legs were still shaking from the adrenaline that she had accumulated during the bike ride.

"Yeah, but that makes the stars look brighter," he chuckled, turning back to face her.

Windswept, but still smiling, she slipped on a patch of seaweed clinging to one of the rocks as they locked eyes.

He caught her arm and managed to steady her before they both let out loud, breathy laughs. With Butchy's help, they both reached the sand in one piece and strolled along under the stars, talking through basic things they felt they should clear up, which mostly ended up with them just discussing their friends. Or more specifically, clearing up misconceptions they both had about each other's peer groups.

After brushing hands too many times for it to be considered accidental anymore, they ended up sat on the sand with the shore lapping quietly before them, almost as if it too was nervous about the unspoken, flirtatious tension between them to approach them properly.

"I never get tired of coming down this end of the beach," Butchy said, lying back on the sand. "The sky always looks clearer here...my head feels clearer too."

"Is this like your little thinking spot then?"

"Yeah, I guess so," he chuckled.

"I wouldn't have said you'd think enough to warrant a whole place dedicated to it," Giggles teased, earning herself another laugh. "I know what you mean though… It's nice to clear your head sometimes."

"You got that right."

Giggles sat on the sand for a few minutes, listening to the soft splashing of the sea foam as a content smile sat on her face. She could wholeheartedly say that she never thought she'd ever be in this situation and part of it still didn't feel real to her. But at the same time, she was dreading the night coming to a close. The star-speckled sky hung above them in awe and the foliage whispered about the peculiarity of the pairing, but they happily sat beside each other on the sand, soaking up each other's presence whilst they still had it. The longer she sat though, the more prominent a thought grew in her head.

"Is that why you wanted to come here?"

"What?" he asked; her voice had dragged him out of his thoughts and back into reality.

"Did you come here because you needed to think? To clear your head?"

"Uh...I guess so. It just felt like the right place to come to. Plus, I just wanted us away from Jesse."

"Is that who that guy at the diner was?"

"Oh yeah, sorry. I forgot you didn't know him," he said almost bashfully before sitting back up to explain properly. "He's...uh, how do I explain this?" he mumbled to himself. After appearing to settle on his words of choice he looked back up and said, "He's the leader of a rival gang, to start off with, that's probably the easiest way to start."

"You guys have other rival groups?"

"Yeah, apparently kids with bikes get pretty territorial," he joked.

"Really? You could have fooled me," she chuckled.

"They call themselves The Cobras but really they're just dicks," he muttered, before quickly dropping his gaze again and uttering an embarrassed: "Sorry."

"Don't worry, it's fine; I've heard worse," she softly laughed.

"So yeah, he's their leader. Well, it's more like he's running things for his older brother while he's away at college. He's not been as much trouble up until now but I guess he didn't like me steppin' on his toes and showin' up to his crew's hangout spot."

"Did you know they were going to be there then?"

"No. I knew there was a chance they might show up but they're playing a new movie down at the drive-in that a bunch of the Rodents went to go see, so I thought they might have gone to stir up some trouble there instead. I gave Lugnut his orders in case anything did start without me but I guess it'll have been fine if they showed up at the diner instead."

"Didn't you want to go to the drive-in with your friends?"

"No, not when I knew this was my alternative," he said, smiling down at the sand, still too embarrassed to bring his eyes back up to meet hers.

The smile alone was enough to cause that fuzzy, warm feeling that had been bubbling away in Giggles' stomach all night to spread out through her whole body. With that warmth came a spurt of courageous curiosity though and she found herself speaking without thinking. "Is that what you came here to think about then?"

"What do you mean?" Butchy asked, finally bringing his gaze back to her, although now Giggles could see confusion swimming around in the espresso pigment that she could now barely make out thanks to the twilight.

"This...Tonight. Did you want to… I don't know, think tonight over?" she asked, her bravery soon deserting her when she was locked into his gaze. Her voice dropped off the further through the sentence she managed to get and soon she was just floundering for any word to say at all, mouth still agape.

"...What's there to think about?" Butchy chuckled after a pause. She could tell he was being sarcastic, but the laugh definitely put her at ease a little more. "I've just spent my whole night with a surfer, out of my own choice, instead of with my crew. It's not exactly what I thought I'd be doing at this time last week and if you'd have asked me I definitely wouldn't have said that I'd have enjoyed myself…"

Oh God, where was this going? And here she'd been thinking that it had gone well for them. She felt the warmth dying out and her smile faltering. But then he reached out and placed his hand on top of hers, offering her a smile that sent the jolt of electricity that shot up through her arm whizzing through her whole body.

"But you've done something pretty unheard of: you've changed my mind. Just don't let Lela hear that; she thinks that's only something she's capable of," he said with a small laugh.

"Don't worry, my lips are sealed," she laughed back. Relief flooded over her as blood rushed to her cheeks and she felt herself bashfully hanging her head.

"God, I don't know why I've been chasing after bitchy biker girls all this time when there's girls like you out there," he sighed incredulously.

"Don't worry, there's a fair share of bitchy surfer girls too," she softly giggled, praying he couldn't see how furiously she was blushing.

"Gee, guess that makes you even more special. There ain't many girls out there like you, with a heart like yours, I mean."

"I'm not that special, believe me."

"Course you are. I've only spoken to you, what? Twice now? And already I can see that. I'd have to be crazy not to. Mind you, you are pretty crazy for wanting to spend time with a guy like me when you're so…" But he couldn't find the right word to finish his sentence.

"Well, just for the record, I think Joey's a pretty special guy too," Giggles said, before pausing and adding with a sigh, "I just wish I could have seen what was under all that scary leather-"

"Woah, hold up. At least let me take ya on a proper date first before we get to that," Butchy laughed.

Realising what it sounded like she had implied, Giggles began to blush even more furiously. "That's not what I- Oh, you know what I meant," she said. Flustered, she half-heartedly bumped his arm before letting out a laugh of her own when he caught her eye.

"But really," he continued once their laughter had subsided. "You don't get how crazy all this is for me. I never show this side of myself to anyone. Hell, Lela only knows of it because she's grown up with me, the rest of the time I waltz around playing the tough guy. And then I sit down with you and I can't seem to be anyone but myself."

"Well… I wouldn't say that's a bad thing."

"Hmm, maybe, but I'm sure The Rodents would have other ideas. They need someone strong to lead 'em or we'd end up in a shit-ton of trouble."

"You can still be strong and be yourself. You don't have to go around wearing a mask all the time."

"See, you even make _that_ sound easy," Butchy chuckled wearily.

"That's because it is… You've just got to believe in yourself a bit more; you've got a beautiful heart hidden away in there," Giggles said, playfully prodding his chest. "And hiding that does not make you a 'tough guy', having the courage to do what's right is what's important and I've already seen you do that tonight when you stood up to that Snake guy."

"Cobra," Butchy corrected, earning himself another laugh. But his bashful smile gave him away, so Giggles continued.

"So don't go hiding behind your big scary motorcycle again in the morning, okay?"

"Okay, whatever you say," he chuckled. "God, we haven't even been out on a date and you already understand my messed up head more than I do."

"...Was this not a date?"

Giggles couldn't believe what she'd just said and from Butchy's expression he was rather taken aback as well. Immediately her blush returned and her skin prickled in embarrassment. Why couldn't she seem to think things through before saying them tonight? It was like her instinct had completely taken over her. Thankfully, Butchy's confusion soon subsided as he let out a somewhat awkward laugh.

"Gee, I know us bikers ain't the fanciest folks in town but trust me, if I cared about a girl I'd take her somewhere a little more upscale than that shitty diner. I guess tonight was just for...testing the engine, or the waters I guess if you're a surfer," he said with a chuckle. "Oh, and the chilli fries."

"Of course," she giggled in response, grateful he'd managed to lighten the mood again. "Well, thank you for...whatever tonight was. I've had a great time."

"So have I."

"Engine sounding okay then?" she asked teasingly.

"Engine's sounding pretty damn sweet," he said with a playfully smug smile.

"So…?"

"God, you're gonna make me spell it out, ain't ya?" he chuckled in mock exasperation, even though, in all honesty, Giggles was just as unsure of the situation as she sounded. "You want me to pick you up next time or you wanna make your own way there?"

She felt the blush return and the bubble of warmth in her stomach burst, flooding her whole body with more white hot elation that she could comprehend. "Is this your way of telling me you care about me?"

"Ain't I made it clear enough already?" he asked, drawing a chuckle from her lips.

"I just don't want to jump to any conclusions," Giggles said bashfully.

"Well then, wear something pretty and I guess you'll find out," he replied with a smirk. "Saturday night sound alright?"

"This Saturday?"

"What? You wanna make me wait even longer to see you again?" he laughed.

"No, Saturday's fine. But what about the other bikers? Don't you have plans with them for Saturday?"

"Nothing important, I think they're just planning to grab some food at Big Momma's then scout out some beers and race around the dirt track. So I know where I'd rather be."

"Won't they miss you?"

"Nah, I'll just tell 'em I've got family shit to take care of. Lela won't mind missing it, she'll probably thank me when I tell her. And I'm sure she'll rope Tanner into taking her out on a date or something."

"I'll tell him to invite her to the shindig the surfers are having at Big Momma's, I'm sure she'd be happy to go along there with him and he'll love spending the night with her if he loves her even half as much as he loves talking about her."

"Oh shit, do you want to go on a different night then? I don't want you to miss out on that if you'd rather be with your friends-"

"No, it's fine, I've been to a bunch of shindigs, it'll just be like all the others. Like you said, I know where I'd rather be."

"Perfect. You want a ride or is the big, scary bike gonna scare your parents shitless?" he asked with a wry smile.

"I think the bike might be a bit much," she chuckled, imagining her mother's face watching her speed away on the back of it.

"Don't worry, that's understandable. How does a table at Giovanni's sound?"

Giovanni's? That fancy Italian restaurant her dad had treated her mom to a dinner at a couple of years ago for their twentieth wedding anniversary? Was he serious? "It, er- Incredible. It sounds incredible, but isn't that place super expensive? We don't have to-"

"Hey, I said I take care of the girls I care about, didn't I? Besides, I might as well spend what's left of my pay cheque on something other than bike parts for once," he grinned. And as soon as he got a smile and a nod of agreement, he finished with, "I'll book a table for 8pm then."

"I'll be there."

"Good, it's already going to be bad enough having to wait until then to see you again."

"It's only two days," she giggled.

"Two days too long," he chuckled before glancing down at his watch and noting the time. "Shit, what time did you say your curfew was again?"

"Eleven."

"Come on, we've got like three minutes to get you back," he said, scrambling to his feet before turning to help her up and hurriedly guide her back to his bike.

"I can be a couple of minutes late-"

"Not if I want to make a good impression."

"Relax, they think I'm out with Tanner and the others anyway."

"Well if I make your parents mad at your friends I don't think they'll be too pleased with me either. Now hop on, I'll keep my big, bad bike away from your parents but I'm dropping you off on your street at the very least," he said, smiling at her as he tucked her hair behind her ears and fixed the helmet on top of her head.

"Thanks," she said, happily returning the smile before taking her place behind him.

He revved the engine and glanced over his shoulder. "You ready?"

For the ride home? For their date (holy shit, date, that will never not be weird to think about) on Saturday night? Or for whatever the future held? Whatever it was, her answer remained the same: "Ready as I'll ever be."

 **Sorry it's taken me so long to get this chapter written. Going back to school and applying to university really took a toll on my and my free time, so writing had to take a bit of a back seat but I've finally managed to get something together to post. I don't quite know how I feel about it but hopefully you liked it! I'm getting a little more used to writing for them as a couple and their dialogue together and stuff so there should be some improvement soon but I hope this is alright for now! If you have any feedback or suggestions let me know!**

 **Thank you for reading! I'll try to get the next chapter out a little sooner this time, I promise!**

 **\- cherrygorilla**


	4. Chapter 4: Giovanni's

The painful aching of summer drawing to a close soaked into the skins on the surfers as they tried to make the most of what blistering heat they had left. A volleyball soared above their heads as two teams of sweaty teens leapt and dove to smack it back and forth. Thankful for a break from the game, Giggles plopped down on the sand beside Tanner, who was scribbling something down on the back of a receipt he'd managed to dig out from the bottom of his backpack. Grabbing her water bottle, she glanced over his shoulder, trying to see what he was writing, but got so distracted she almost spilled the bottle's contents all over herself. Coughing and spluttering, she managed a weak smile as Tanner's attention was inadvertently drawn to her.

"You okay there?" he chuckled in amusement, patting her back to help her choking subside.

"Fine," she coughed, unsure whether the burning in her chest or her now flushed cheeks were more prominent.

"Maybe you should take more than just five minutes off," he joked with a smile, before adding, "They seem to still be doing alright without you." But as soon as he spoke Rascal crashed into Pearl and was sent flying, earning himself a nasty bruise and a face-full of sand. "Or maybe not," Tanner said, cringing at the chaos enveloping before them.

"Volleyball's a disaster, I don't know why we ever try to play," Giggles said, stifling a laugh of her own as Rascal punched Finn in the balls for letting out a cruel, hearty guffaw at his misfortune.

"We play because we're friends with overly competitive idiots," he replied, watching the volleyball be tossed back into the air and the surfers turn back into wild animals as they chased after it.

A comfortable silence settled over the pair as they sat and observed the game, but as Tanner went back to messily scribbling on the back of the crumpled receipt for tortilla chips, sunscreen and a carton of apple juice, Giggles' curiosity spiked again.

"What's that?" she eventually pushed herself to ask.

"Oh, just a receipt I found in my bag."

"Yeah, but what are you writing on it?" she continued, softly chuckling at his ditziness. Sometimes she felt like he was even more of a blonde than she was, even with his brown, quiffed locks.

"Ohhhh," he said, finally catching on to what she meant and flashing a goofy smile. "I've been trying to remember the name of this restaurant Lela was talking about for days now and it finally came to me. I think I'm gonna surprise her with a date there for our two month anniversary next week, which just so happens to also be her birthday."

"Aww, that's so sweet, Tanner. What restaurant is it?"

"Giovanni's. At least I'm pretty sure that's it, I know it sounded super fancy anyway, which also reminds me to ask my parents if they can give me my allowance early," he chuckled.

"Yeah, it's that Italian restaurant across town. It's pretty expensive but I hear the food's amazing," she said, feeling a few butterflies start to make their rounds of her stomach. Clearly they were still hanging around in there after last night.

"Maybe I should ask them to up my allowance whilst I'm at it then," Tanner joked, before adding with a dreamy smile, "She's worth it though."

"You've really got it bad, haven't you?" Giggles giggled.

"Yeah, worst case of the crushes I've ever known. And I've seen Rascal around my sister, so that's saying a lot," he laughed.

"Is she going to the shindig tomorrow night?"

"No, not that I know of."

"Why don't you invite her? I'm sure the others would love to have her there and you obviously would too."

"You're not wrong," he said with a fond smile. "You really think everyone else will be okay with it?"

"Of course, and besides, she can go in my place."

"Oh, okay… Wait, why aren't you going?"

"I've...uh, I've got some other plans," she said, meeting his confused gaze and mustering an awkward smile.

"Other plans? What other plans? What are you hiding?" he asked as an intrigued grin began to take over his face.

"It's not that big of a deal," she lied, already feeling herself start to blush.

"Oh come on, I've known you forever, Giggles. I know I'm not the smartest guy but I'm not totally stupid," he laughed. "What's going on? Is this about that guy everyone was losing their mind over the other night?"

"Maybe…" she reluctantly admitted. Although she tried to avoid Tanner's gaze his amazement and excitement soon made it impossible, which sent a shy, but excited smile stretching across her own face.

"Wait, seriously? Are you going on another date with him?"

"Well, it wasn't really a proper date last time-"

"But it is this time?"

"...Yeah."

"Holy shit, Giggles!"

"Calm down!"

"No, don't tell me to calm down. This is huge. I'm so happy for you. Where are you guys going?"

"Guess," she laughed.

"Oh my god, don't tell me it's-"

"Giovanni's."

"Damn, a first date at Giovanni's. He must really like you," Tanner laughed. "That or it's the hotspot for dates and I'm just late to jump on the trend."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, I haven't even been on the date yet."

"Oh shut up, Giggles. Stop getting in your head so much, just go and enjoy yourself. He's taking you out for a reason after all, especially to such a fancy place. He's seen you for the incredible girl you are after one night together so why can't you see it in yourself? Stop making the guys who chase after you feel like we're crazy," he playfully teased.

But just as Giggles managed to bashfully smile back at Tanner, having been happily reminded of their little teenage fling in freshman year, Shelley stormed over, looking as if she was going to slap her.

"Okay, break time's over, we need you back on. Rascal and Finn are turning this into a shitshow and I'm not losing to Seacat and Coral," she barked as Finn flipped her off behind her back.

"We can hear you, you know, Shell," Rascal called.

"Oh course I do, Dipshit. Do I look like I care?" she snapped back.

"Ooh, someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Seacat quipped with a mischievous smile, idly spinning the volleyball in his hand.

"No, Joel just didn't give her a good morning kiss before he left for work," Finn added.

"Oh fuck off, Finn," Shelley fumed, marching back over to her teammate, who just laughed and pretended to cower behind Rascal.

"Looks like I'd better go," Giggles sighed, sharing an amused smile with Tanner.

"I think it's for the best," Tanner agreed with a chuckle.

"Thanks, Tanner."

"No problem."

After sharing one final grin, Giggles scrambled to her feet with a warm feeling of nostalgia resting in her chest after being reminded of her and Tanner's little romance. 'Romance' may have been a bit of a stretch considering it was more of a shy puppy love they blissfully muddled through for around a year. Thankfully things didn't fall apart for them, instead just fizzled out into simple amicability. But at least she earned herself an incredibly close friend at the end of it; Tanner was practically family to her now. He was someone she knew she'd always be able to depend on to have her back and that reliability, amongst his other wonderful qualities (his relentless kindness, effortlessly charming disposition and impeccable ability to cheer her up, no matter the circumstances) was something she'd always treasure.

But her team barely got through their team talk before the distant revving of motorcycle engines drifted in on the breeze.

"Great," Shelley muttered, rolling her eyes and trudging into position opposite Pearl, who was stood idly playing with the end of her braid.

Then as Seacat tossed the ball to Rascal so that he could serve, the bikes came tearing into Big Momma's car park, startling Pearl so much she forgot all about the volleyball hurtling towards her. So as Seacat went to retrieve the ball and Coral went to check that she was alright, their game came to a very early stand-still. Shelley fumed beside her, Finn stood muttering to a very dismayed Rascal, and Giggles caught herself staring at the Rodents dismounting their bikes. Or, to be more specific, one Rodent in particular, although she'd never admit it to herself.

He slung off his helmet and slid a pair of black aviators onto the bridge of his nose as he shot Lugnut a mischievous grin. He strode ahead of the pack, his chin held high and a cock-sure smile curling at his lips. Lugnut dropped into stride beside Struts, who he greeted with a playful slap on the behind that sent her into a flurry of flirtatious giggles. CheeChee kicked the stand down on her bike, puckered her lips into a sultry scowl and pulled her top a little further down before slipping in between two biker boys, making them practically drool from the moment they spotted her, before she picked up her pace even more to chase the Rodent pack's leader.

It was moments like this that reminded Giggles why she had disliked the bikers for so long.

But her opinion soon changed when the heel of CheeChee's boot slipped into a crack in the asphalt of the car park, almost toppling her to the ground. Butchy must have seen her start to go down from the corner of his eye because he grabbed her arm and steadied her before she could fall. CheeChee's face flushed scarlet as the boys behind her, whose lustful stares were long gone, started to snicker. But Butchy's concern for her shone through as he helped her back to her feet. She still appeared to be embarrassed as she mumbled her gratitude and marched ahead though, leaving Butchy to snap something at his gang members, who kept cruelly amused grins fixed on their faces but soon shut up. He then seemed to take a moment to consider whether or not to check she was alright, but thought better of it when he saw her angrily trample a deflated beach ball in her path.

Giggles had never really seen Butchy show that side before, that intense protectiveness. Well, unless Lela was involved, of course. Usually he seemed as if he lacked any concern at all, carrying himself with a menacing confidence that sent trouble running for cover. But then again, if she didn't see Joey lurking beneath all the bravado then she may not have spotted it at all. Was that side of him there all the time? How had she not seen it before.

Completely lost in thought, barely aware of the arguing that had started up again between her teammates beside her, words began to leave Giggles' mouth before she even knew what she was doing. A melody, whispered out from the rustling of the tropical foliage, captured her thoughts and lured them out. The universe clearly wanted to know what was going on inside her head just as much as she did. Pretty violins plucked at ideas and strung out a tune with a strange sincerity and delicacy that felt very new for the beach. Perhaps it sensed there was something in the air: a shift of sorts. A new chapter just waiting to begin.

Giggles: "There's something sweet, and almost kind

But he was mean and he was coarse and unrefined

And now he's dear and so unsure

I wonder why I didn't see it there before."

Seeing him in such a new light felt so strange, she could hardly believe that the short time they had spent together had made such an impact on her. It was as if a filter had been switched off and she was seeing him with fresh eyes for the first time. And as jarring as it was, something about it made her heart leap.

Sadly, Finn dragged her back into her bubble of surfer friends by shouting, "Giggles, you ready?"

"Yeah," she replied, tearing her eyes away and letting out a heavy sigh as she readied herself for the volleyball to be flung back into the air. She was sure she felt someone's eyes on her as she turned back to her friends though. Did she catch their gaze too? Or was her mind running away with itself and playing tricks on her?

* * *

The furious thudding of heeled biker boots that drilled into Butchy's head and began to set a scowl on his face was all of a sudden drowned out by the calls of some surfer kids further down the beach. Usually he wouldn't have batted an eyelid, instead probably favouring to roll his eyes actually, but a certain name they called pulled his head towards them before he could stop himself. He homed in on a blonde ponytail and lilac, fringed bikini top within milliseconds, almost catching her gaze before she turned her attention back to her friends' volleyball game. Lingering for a moment on the scene, his mind caught up with his eyes, helping him to realise that for him to nearly catch her gaze, she had to have been looking at him in the first place. Warmth trickled through his bones just strongly enough to draw a small smile to his face and flood his brain with memories from the night before. The way his skin feels as if it starts to buzz when he's near her, the way her body pressed to his as his bike engine revved in rhythm with the pounding of his heart, the unintentional but very welcomed brushing of hands and the way that she smiles that makes him feel like a totally different person: himself, instead of the beast of a persona he got lost in more often than not. He didn't know what she'd done to him; this all felt very out of character, but he was surprisingly welcome to the change. Well, it was more like he just didn't try to think of it that much; that way felt much safer when acting natural around the other bikers was concerned.

Butchy: "She glanced this way, I thought I saw

And when we touched she didn't shudder at my paw

No it can't be, I'll just ignore

But then she's never looked at me that way before"

Jostled from his thoughts, and a seemingly unheard melody, by Lugnut slapping him on the shoulder and barking, "You up for sharing a basket of chilli fries then, Boss?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," he replied, gently shaking his head as if that would help to clear it of thoughts regarding anything other than spokes, chrome and tyre treads.

"You okay?" Lugnut asked dubiously, with Struts perched on his arm wearing an equally suspicious expression.

"Sure, why'd you ask?" Butchy replied, borderline defensively.

"You were totally spaced out there."

"Yeah, you check out to anywhere nice? Any pretty girls there? Did ya send me a postcard?" Struts teased with an obnoxious giggle.

"Yeah, it was real nice; you two weren't there gettin' on my back," Butchy shot back with sarcastic venom.

"Jeez, alright, cool off, Butch," Struts said with a frown. "No need to be so grumpy, I was only playin'."

"You sure you're alright? You didn't skip out on the plans last night because-"

"I'm fine, okay? I was just thinkin' about stuff at work. Come on, let's go grab our table."

Struts and Lugnut stood and watched him march into Big Momma's with his gaze dragging along the floor. Something definitely didn't seem right.

"'I'm fine'? Bullshit," Struts mumbled. "Somethin's goin' on with him, Lugnut."

"I know, it's messin' with his head and he never lets things get to his head."

"Well what are we gonna do about it?"

"What can we do about it?"

"Whaddya mean?" Struts squeaked incredulously, popping a bubble with her third piece of gum today.

"Well we can't help him if we don't know what's wrong and it doesn't look like he's gonna tell us any time soon."

"Ugh, I'm still keeping an eye on him. I'll get to the bottom of it eventually, whether he likes it or not."

"Alright, just don't make it obvious; I don't want him bitin' your head off if he finds out, okay, Baby?" he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"Sure thing," she replied, resting her head on his chest and smiling into the black cotton of his t-shirt before looking back up at him and coyly adding with a giggle, "Now come on, you've got a soda to buy if last night's wager is anything to go by."

* * *

Streaked with baby pink and blue, the sky stretched across the windscreen in wisps of candyfloss. But the sugary surroundings just turned Giggles' stomach more. The bikers had disappeared into Big Momma's after their arrival and she'd hardly seen them since, which she was relieved of considering how much even just seeing Butchy when in the company of her friends had unsettled her. With Coral getting ready for the shindig at Shelley's house, it meant that Tanner was free to drop her off at the restaurant without his sister suspecting anything, but his laidback chatter wasn't doing much to put her at ease. Her fingers meticulously smoothed out the creases in her dress or adjusted fly-away strands of hair in her braid. Despite all the nerves though, part of her was still itching to see him again.

Giggles: "New and a bit alarming

Who'd have ever thought that this could be?

True that he's no Prince Charming

But there's something in him that I simply didn't see…"

She still couldn't believe that this had become her life in a mere matter of days: dining at one of the fanciest restaurants in town with the head of the Rodents biker gang on what was apparently a 'date'. If someone had told her that this would be happening a few months ago...maybe even a few weeks ago, she'd have been horrified at the very thought of it. But there was definitely more to the brutish boy, who wore a leather vest and intimidation like it was cologne, than she'd have ever thought before. Who knew a few measly conversations and enough courage to actually interact with him outside of the confines of Big Momma's could bring about all this? The short time she'd spent in his company had totally flipped her perspective of him on its head. Sure he was still a little cocky and rough around the edges, but there was something endearing about him that she seemed to have drawn out. The sincerity behind him showing her his little private spot along the beach, the way that after talking to her for a few short minutes he'd let down his guard and relax into his genuine personality (the Joey side of him, as she'd come to think of it) instead of his 'big-bad biker charade' and how he'd tried to help her navigate the rocky pathway down the the beach but had almost tripped over himself as a result of his chivalrous attempt (which prompted spouts of bashful laughter that still brought as smile to her face at the thought of). But more than anything it was the intent that he looked at her with when she spoke, as if he genuinely cared about what she had to say. And coming from a guy she previously believed didn't care about anything, not even motorbike engines, let alone another human being, that felt really special, almost overwhelmingly special; what had she done to deserve that?

"Okay, here we are," Tanner chirped, shutting off the engine and turning to her. He wore a shirt splashed with shades of blue and his signature, goofy grin that she felt obliged to return the second she spotted it.

"Thanks, Tanner."

"You nervous?" he asked. Tanner was known for often stating the obvious, so she clearly wasn't hiding her nerves as well as she'd hoped she had been.

"A little," she said with a shy, breathy laugh. Sighing, she dropped her gaze, letting out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in. "It's just not what I'm used to. Expensive restaurants, fancy dresses, this isn't me at all."

"You don't have to change who you are because you're going to eat at a different restaurant with this guy. He asked 'diner Giggles' out on a date, just be 'diner Giggles', but in a pretty silk dress."

"It's not silk, but thanks," Giggles softly chuckled.

"Well you know what I mean. I try to pay attention when Lela's talking about fashion stuff but I'm still clueless. Just be yourself. And if you need a little boost of confidence to get you through those doors and to the table with him then just do what my sister says 'fake it like plastic'."

"Yeah, you're right. I think I just need someone to spell it out for me before I believe it; I'm not the best at trusting myself," she admitted.

"No, you're not, now come on, you've got a date with destiny...maybe," he replied with a laugh.

"Okay, let's not get ahead of ourselves," she giggled as she started to get out of the car. "Thanks, Tanner," she then added once she'd smoothed out the creases in her dress again.

"No problem, have fun. Find me something good on the menu to order for Lela so I can impress her when I bring her," he said with a chuckle as Giggles closed her car door behind her. But as she started to make her way towards the restaurant he quickly rolled his window down and called out after her, "Knock him dead!"

"I'll try!" she called back with a little laugh at his comically overbearing bolstering.

"But if he breaks your heart I'll knock him dead," he added before driving out of the car park to pick up his own date for the night.

"Oh, if only he knew," Giggles murmured to herself as she watched the rear lights of Tanner's car disappear into the stream of traffic on the main road. She was certain that, whether he'd broken her heart or not, Butchy would knock Tanner into next week before Tanner even thought about trying to knock him out. But that didn't mean that she didn't appreciate his support.

But just as Giggles took a deep breath and turned to make her way towards the grand double doors, framed by two spiralled conifers draped in fairy lights and a large canopy, the purr of an engine swelled to a roar as it rushed into the car park, followed by a figure on a bike. After hurriedly stuffing their helmet and jacket into the seat compartment they hurried over to Giggles wearing a sheepish smile and a very smart burgundy shirt.

He looked as if he was going to open his mouth to apologise, but instead he stopped in his tracks in the middle of the car park and just looked at her. Insecurity started to eat away at Giggles and his gaze felt like it was tearing away at her confidence even more.

"Wow, yellow's definitely your colour." But that definitely helped. And so did him adding, "Well, one of 'em anyway."

"Thanks," she smiled, blushing profusely. She hoped he didn't mind her wearing pink because if these compliments kept up then she feared she'd be wearing it on her cheeks a lot. "You look great too," she continued after taking a second to try to compose herself. "It's surprise after surprise with you, first no leather jacket and now a dress shirt? I'm impressed," she said with a giggle.

"Well count yourself lucky; I don't make this much effort for just anyone," he said with a playful grin. "But thanks. I spend so much time covered in engine oil I sometimes forget how to get all dressed up."

"Well you've really outdone yourself with this one," she said with a grin that he welcomed.

"I'm sorry I'm here so late, I didn't want you waitin' around for me but Lela was giving me a real hard time with wantin' to know where I was goin'," Butchy continued as he started to lead her towards the restaurant doors.

"It's alright, I only just got here myself," she replied, now incredibly thankful that he had arrived when he had and hadn't bumped into Tanner dropping her off because that was sure to have created far more problems than she cared to think about. And after quickly glancing down at the watch sitting on Butchy's wrist she added, "Plus it's not even eight yet, we've still got a couple of minutes."

"I know, but I don't like to keep a lady waiting," Butchy said, grabbing the door handle and holding it open so that she could walk through: chivalry that made Giggles blush even more.

"Me? A lady? I'm not a lady, not in the slightest," she said bashfully, dropping her gaze to the polished wooden floor as she was hit with the most incredible smell of baked garlic and rosemary.

"Well you're mine tonight," he replied, smoothly swooping down and taking her hand in his as he led her over to the podium.

What felt like a stream of soda bubbles shot up her arm as soon as they touched. His hand felt rough, presumably because it was more used to holding a spanner, but it held her hand with a tenderness she certainly didn't think he handled hub caps with.

"Table for two," Butchy said to the waiter manning the podium.

"I'm sorry, but we're all booked up tonight...sir," the waiter said stiffly, reluctantly addressing the young man, who he clearly thought didn't have any place in a restaurant like this.

"It's a good job I made a reservation then, isn't it?" Butchy replied with a sweet confidence that appeared to surprise the waiter.

"...Name?" the man asked, clearly dubious of the pair.

"Bianchi."

The waiter's eyebrows creased as he scanned the notebook of names and let out an audible sigh when he spotted it. "Right this way," he continued, attempting to fix a smile back onto his face.

Butchy shot her a satisfied grin before leaning towards her and saying in a playful, hushed tone that jolted the butterflies in her stomach awake. "After you, m'lady."

* * *

"Hey, pretty lady," Tanner grinned as Lela hopped into the passenger seat of his car.

"Hi!" she said, happily returning the smile after pressing a kiss to his lips.

"You look gorgeous."

"You don't look too shabby yourself, mister," she giggled as she buckled up her seatbelt.

"You ready to go?"

"Yeah, I'm so excited! I can't wait to get to know your friends more and I've always wondered what these surfer shindig things are like."

"You're not sad about missing out on your plans with the other bikers?" Tanner asked as they set off to Big Momma's.

"As if. They're just going to get drunk and race around the old dirt track like idiots," Lela sighed, rolling her eyes. "And besides, I'd much rather spend my time with you," she added on a brighter note.

"What did your brother have to say about you ditching?"

"He was okay with it actually, like really okay. He was telling me I could go out with you tonight before I even told him you'd asked."

"Really? Do you think there's a reason he didn't want you there? You don't think they're going to get in any trouble do you?"

"Well I hope not, but if they did I doubt Butchy would be part of it; he got all dressed up and left before you even got here."

"Where was he going?"

"He wouldn't even tell me!" Lela cried incredulously, still hardly able to believe it herself. "But there's no way he would get dressed up that nicely just to go to the dirt track, no biker girl would be worth that much effort to impress; that shirt would get ruined in seconds."

"Why would he wear it then?"

"I don't think he's going to the dirt track. I think he wanted an excuse to get out of it, which would explain why he wanted me to find other plans with you, because he's got a date of his own."

"A date?"

"I know! Can you believe it?! He's got himself a girlfriend and he hasn't even told me about her yet, let alone let me meet her!" Lela exclaimed.

"Give him time, Lela. I'm sure he'll tell you when he's ready," Tanner chuckled.

"Still, I'm his sister. What's so bad about just saying 'Oh, Lela, I'm just going out on a date, don't wait up for me'?"

"Because he knows you'd freak out because you were so excited about it," Tanner laughed.

"Okay, that's true. But the more warning I'd have, the less I'd freak out," Lela reasoned.

"Well, I'm happy with the situation whatever the reasoning if it means I get to spend the night with you."

"Aww Tanner," Lela giggled, before adding with a sigh, "I wonder where he went. It must be nice if he got so dressed up."

"I don't know, but Giggles is out on a fancy date tonight too."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah, I just dropped her off at Giovanni's. She's the one who suggested I invite you tonight since she can't go."

"Giovanni's? Ooh that is fancy! I didn't know Giggles had a boyfriend!"

"I think it's still early days; she seemed really nervous in the car," Tanner admitted.

"Well I hope it goes well for her. The guy must really like her if he's taking her there on one of their first dates," Lela sighed. But then she gasped and her eyes flew wide, shocking Tanner so much he almost swerved onto the other side of the road.

"What?" he asked, eying her with concern, clearly thinking something must be wrong.

But instead Lela was wearing a huge smile. "Butchy and Giggles are both on fancy dates tonight, right?"

"Right."

"What if it's the same one?!"

Silence fell over the car as if the world around them was holding its breath.

"...Butchy and _Giggles_? On a date _together_?" Tanner asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't think you could have thought of two people who are less suited to each other if you'd have tried."

"You never know! Opposites attract!" Lela exclaimed. But from the way she was laughing Tanner knew she thought it was just as ridiculous as he did. "Oh god, my brother dating a surfer. Could you imagine?"

"I am, right now," Tanner laughed.

"Well, whoever Butchy's on a date with, I hope she's half as nice Giggles has been whenever I've spoken to her, because most of the time his girlfriends aren't very pleasant at all," Lela grumbled.

"Come on, stop thinking about your brother's evening," Tanner said as he pulled into Big Momma's car park and shut the engine off. "We've got our own to enjoy."

"You're right," Lela sighed. "And I can't wait!" she added with a grin as Tanner opened her door and helped her out of the car.

* * *

"This looks incredible!" Giggles gasped once the waiter who had laid her plate of pasta down had started to make his way back to the kitchen.

"I bet it tastes even better," Butchy chuckled, picking up his knife and fork and digging into his own pasta dish.

A lull in their conversation was welcomed since it was instead filled with audible 'mmmmmm's and mumbled 'this is amazing's through mouthfuls of food. They twirled spaghetti around forks and passed them back and forth to sample each other's meals whilst trying not to completely drop their utensils when their hands touched. But as their eating was starting to slow and the amount of food on their plate had dwindled to almost nothing, the conversation began to pick up again.

"So did your dad drop you off again?" Butchy asked before shovelling more pasta onto his fork.

"No, he's out with some of his gardening friends."

"Gardening?" Butchy asked. Surprisingly he seemed interested.

"Yeah, he's got a little plot of land on an allotment near our house where he grows a bunch of vegetables. He gets together with some of the other people who grow stuff there every few weeks to have dinner and...talk about gardening I guess," Giggles attempted to explain. Too bad she didn't really pay a great deal of attention when her dad talked about such meetings. "I think he's mentioned something about them playing board games as well, but I could be wrong. So I got one of my friends to drop me off instead," she continued, before quickly adding with a knowing look. "Don't worry, I didn't tell them I was dining with you."

Butchy just smiled at her comment, whether out of gratitude or amusement though, she wasn't sure. "It's nice your dad has a hobby like that where he can catch up with his friends."

"Really? It always sounds pretty lame to me when he brings it up."

"Yeah, but maybe that's 'cause I can already see me and Lugnut doing the same thing when we're past our prime," Butchy said with a chuckle.

"You? Past your prime? Never!" Giggles gasped in playful shock.

"Oh okay, I guess I've got a _few_ good years left in me," he joked with a smirk.

"I wouldn't pin you as the gardening type though," Giggles said, letting a smile play at her lips as she pictured Butchy in her dad's moth-eaten sun hat and worn, muddy overalls.

"You never know what the future holds, G," he chuckled. "What does he do with the stuff he grows."

"My mom usually just makes dinner around it. Something tells me that's a little more in your comfort zone."

"I hate to break it to you but you're dead wrong; Lela got all the cooking skills, I can just about get by with toast, unless it's a barbecue, then I'm the master of the grill," Butchy said.

"What's so different about an oven and a barbecue grill?" Giggles chuckled.

"I don't know, but every time I go near the stove Lela usually runs for cover," Butchy laughed. "What about you? Do you help your mom out in the kitchen?"

"Sometimes, I usually prepare dinner by myself when she's out at her flower arranging class, but most of the time I'm just left peeling potatoes or chopping carrots. I don't get to do much of the fun stuff, but sometimes she lets me bake some of the stock for the bakery if I'm helping out that day."

"Oh my god, of course, the bakery. I bet you can make some mean cookies then."

"I mean I don't want to brag, but yeah, they're pretty good," she giggled.

"What about brownies? They're my favourites, I always ask Lela to make 'em for my birthday."

"Yeah, I can make brownies," she chuckled.

"You fancy makin' some for me one day?"

"Maybe… and maybe on another I could teach you how to make them yourself," she bargained with a coy smile.

"Sounds like a deal," he grinned, leaning back in his chair and pausing to think for a moment before saying, "Damn, a dad who grows his own vegetables, a mom who cooks, bakes and arranges flowers-"

"A little brother who does karate," Giggles jumped in.

"Who I already don't want to meet down a dark alley," Butchy quipped, making her grin. "I didn't know you had a little brother," he added.

"Yeah, John, he's twelve. And then I've got an older sister called Patricia, but we all just call her Patsy. She's working as an air hostess now though so we don't see much of her anymore and then there's...uh, yeah, there's Patsy and John and then my mom and dad," she said, sort of trailing off at the end.

She seemed pensive to Butchy, but he couldn't tell why. Hoping to save the situation, he pressed on with a warm, almost longing smile, "You close to them?"

"Yeah, we're all really close. My mom and dad are like our rocks, they'd do anything for us," Giggles said as a small smile crept back on her face.

"Sounds pretty perfect," Butchy said, helplessly grinning back at her once he spotted her little smile.

"Yeah," she sighed, dropping her gaze back to the pressed, startlingly white table cloth. Somehow she wasn't as convinced as he was. "What about you? Are you close to your family?" she asked, hoping to share the load of the conversation.

"I've got Lela," he sighed. He didn't look as if he was about to say any more.

"I'm sorry," Giggles winced, definitely feeling as though she'd brought up something she shouldn't have.

"Hey, don't be. We're not here to wallow in self-pity," Butchy chuckled, fixing a smile back onto his face in hopes of making hers return. "And besides, I've got my Rodents, and I've got you now. What more do I need?"

Giggles hoped that the candlelight might hide her blush but she wasn't going to hold her breath.

"Are you both finished?"

The waiter's question startled her a little, but when she looked down and saw that both of their plates had been scraped clean, she just nodded and allowed the man to take them away.

"Was everything to your liking?"

"Yeah, it was great," Butchy said.

"It was delicious, thank you," Giggles said with a little more grace.

"And would you like to see our dessert menu?"

"...Yeah, we'll have a look," Butchy said with a smirk, glancing at Giggles across the table.

Once the waiter had left with their plates, she leaned towards him and said, "I don't think I have enough room for a dessert, Butchy."

"Neither do I but I'm not wrapping things up just yet; this date is not ending with an awkward conversation about family. Plus, who said we couldn't find something to share."

Giggles felt her insides melting like the candle wax down the side of the wine bottle. He really had to stop smiling at her like that.

* * *

Butchy's motorcycle purred to a halt at the top of Giggles' street. He'd gone over the route at least thirty times since the other night so that he didn't have to ask for directions again. He glanced over his shoulder and met her gaze, bringing a smile to his lips as he kicked down the stand and took his hands from the handle bars, placing them on top of hers, which were still looped firmly around his torso.

"We're here, you can let go now," he chuckled.

"Just a little longer?" she asked with a hopeful giggle.

"I mean, I'm not complainin', I just thought I'd give you your options," he chuckled.

Eventually she did let go though, hopping off the back of the bike and gratefully handing the helmet back to Butchy. "Hey, look at that. Even after a helmet and a bike ride your hair still looks as pretty as before," he said, dropping the spare helmet into the seat compartment.

"I still can't believe I've ridden on that thing twice now," Giggles mused aloud. "A few weeks ago I wouldn't have even wanted to go within ten feet of one."

"Yeah, not as bad as they seem, huh?" he laughed.

"Still pretty scary...but sorta fun too, I guess," Giggles admitted. "But that might just be because I'm riding with you."

"Probably," Butchy smirked, prompting her to laugh.

But then it suddenly hit her: this was it. This was the end of their date. All the excitement and nerves she'd accumulated over the past two days had dwindled away to nothing in a few, wonderful hours. And despite all the food they'd eaten over the course of the evening, including the vanilla and raspberry panna cotta they'd shared, an empty feeling sat in the pit of her stomach. The butterflies that had found a rather permanent home there over the past few days even felt like they'd disappeared.

"I've had an incredible night," Giggles eventually sighed after their conversation had been stalled by them both relishing the warm night air and each other's company whilst they still had it.

"And I guess this means that it's coming to a close," Butchy said, sounding equally as disheartened.

A painful silence fell over them again, neither one wanting to tear themselves away from Butchy's bike.

"Thank you," Giggles eventually blurted as a chilly breeze prickled her skin with goosebumps. Her surroundings obviously wanted for things to get moving. "For the meal, for the company...for everything."

"You're very welcome."

"I've loved it."

"As have I."

And once again they were stuck.

"You really don't want to go home, do you?" Butchy chuckled as he watched Giggles idly scuff her shoe along the pavement.

"No, I don't, because I know that as soon as I get through the front door it's all over," Giggles admitted. "And I don't want it to be over, I want it to go on and on because no one's ever treated me like you have tonight. Without your big black boots and leather vest you can be a great guy, Joey-"

"Hey, we said-"

"I don't care what we said, I like it and I'm giving you a compliment, so just shhhh until I'm done," Giggles said, playfully pressing her finger to his lips - framed by freshly shaven stubble and pulled into a smirk. They were soft, like little pillows. She liked them. "You pay attention, you make me laugh and you care...so much. And you care about me, of all people."

She had locked onto his gaze the whole time she spoke, watching his eyes, umber speckled with syrup she felt as if she was getting stuck in, trying to work her words right into his brain. Because of this, she couldn't watch his smirk relax into a smile. But she did feel it beneath her finger. Only for a moment though, because before she could fully take her attention away from speaking to him he had taken her hand in his and had prised it away from his face.

"Of course I care about you," he said with a soft chuckle. His voice was husky but smooth, how she imagined the whiskey that sat in the dusty bottle on the kitchen counter to sound if it could talk.

And then his lips, framed with freshly shaven stubble and clinging to the lasting sweetness of vanilla from their dessert, fell onto hers.

Everything was happening too slowly, but too quickly for her to comprehend. It was clumsy; she was so captivated by what he'd said that she was left totally unprepared. And it was alien to them both; despite all their time together this was still a big step into 'enemy' territory they never would have dreamed of taking a week ago. But it was beautiful; the warmth that burst through their bodies caused the world melt away around them like wax from a candle. Their bodies seemed to melt into one cohesive unit as well, melding together the scent of coconut shampoo with the lingering musk of engine oil, daffodil chiffon with burgundy cotton and of course, her lips with his. A hand fell to her waist, pulling her closer. She didn't object. She did object however, if only mentally, when he eventually pulled his head back, wearing a relaxed smile with euphoria and uncertainty hidden behind the flecks of mahogany in his eyes.

"You get me, G. In a way I don't think anyone else really does, even after what, five days?" he said, letting out a breathy laugh. "Of course I care about you," he reiterated.

She blushed excessively and let out a breath she didn't realise she'd been holding as she relaxed into his hold. It was strong, like he didn't want to let her go.

"Was that an okay note to end the night on then?" he asked, letting his goofy-side show a little more now that the moment had passed.

"Yeah, definitely," she replied with a smile she couldn't seem to wipe from her face.

"You a little more willing to go home now? 'Cause I don't want you catching a cold trying to stay out here all night," he chuckled.

"Alright, if I have to," she sighed with a small laugh, trying to ignore the pang she got when he loosened his grip and took a step back. "I'll miss you though."

"Well, likewise, but if it helps, I can walk you to your door, or at least the top of your driveway."

"I'd like that," she grinned, almost instinctively snuggling into his side as he stepped into stride beside her and looped his arm around her waist again. "But it's not exactly very far, it's only like three houses down."

"Well that's even more of a reason for me to drop by the bakery the next time you're working there," Butchy said.

"I'm there again on Tuesday."

"Are you playing hard to get? 'Cause you just keep making me wait longer and longer. Three whole days? What am I supposed to do with myself? Who am I supposed to talk to?"

"Your friends, you dummy," she laughed. "Or you could save up all the things you want to tell me so we have something to talk about on Tuesday."

"You say that as if we wouldn't find something to talk about anyway," he chuckled.

"So Tuesday's okay for you then?"

"Of course it is, I'm already counting down the days to when I have to 'forget my lunch' again."

But then there they were, at the corner of the hedge that broke into the sprawling lawn in front of Giggles' family home. She turned in his hold to look at him with an aching satisfaction but reluctance to leave.

"I know I keep saying this, but thank you...for everything," she said quietly, playing with the collar of his shirt.

"No, thank _you_ ," he said with a loving smile.

Something about that smile took over Giggles' body. It reacted as if it had a mind of its own, or at least dragged the impulsive side of hers out into the light of the streetlamp. She leaned forwards and pressed her lips to his, desperate for one last taste of that irresistibly sweet, clandestine desire that flickered between them.

Clinging to the feeling of his skin beneath her fingers and the scent of his cologne on her clothes, Giggles reluctantly peeled herself away to find herself face to face with a mixture of surprise and gratification.

"Until Tuesday," he said, gently pushing a piece of hair behind her ear.

"Until Tuesday," she agreed, finally breaking the last of their connection as she stepped back and walked the few paces that led her to the top of the path that wove towards the front door. With one more look, she offered a shy wave and a small, "Bye." He returned the wave, with one hand stuck in his pocket and his shoulders slouched in relaxed satisfaction again. But she kept walking and soon he had disappeared behind the hedge.

She couldn't believe it, she already missed him.

It only got worse when she closed the front door and stood back in her hallway, faced with the stairs she'd hurried down earlier with such nervous excitement when she'd spotted Tanner's car from her bedroom window. Yes, it was over, but as she pressed her back to the smooth, varnished wood of the front door, letting the realisation of the events outside seep through the fibres and into her skin, she realised just how glad she was that it had happened.

 **I hope you liked it!**

 **Sorry it's taken me so long to get this out. Writer's block sucks and school really kicked my ass leading up to Christmas. But the new year brought a new burst of inspiration, so I'm going to push myself to be a little more consistent with my writing.**

 **Even though it took me a while to get it done, I'm really happy with how this chapter turned out, but I'd love to know what you thought of it.**

 **The song I used is of course Something There from Beauty and the Beast, which is one of my favourite films. I thought this song fitted really well with the shyness and insecurity of their feelings for each other, but didn't think it really fit with the style of the piece. But I tried to make it work anyway because I just love it.**

 **But I think that's all I really have to say for now. Things are finally starting to shape up for this story so I'm pretty excited to see where I can take it next! I hope you stick around to find out...**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	5. Chapter 5: Blueberry Lies

There was something in the air that day. A buzz shifting the earth beneath her feet. A silken serenity slipping past her with the wind. Everything around her seemed to be whispering its name: 'Tuesday'. It was like Tuesday finally became a day today; none of the other ones she'd experienced had ever felt like this.

There was something monumental about this Tuesday. Not only had she been counting down its hours since they began, but it marked a week since her world had been turned upside down. Okay, maybe not turned upside down; that phrase always reminded her of chaos. And as strange as this past week had been, it certainly hadn't been chaotic. In fact, it felt like for the first time she'd started to get glimpses of clarity. She felt like her dad every time her mom cleaned his glasses with that special stuff she kept in the bathroom cabinet; for fleeting moments her world seemed to come into focus. Clean lines and vibrant colours. But as her surroundings became sharper she found herself feeling fluffier at the edges than ever before. Her limbs were becoming candy floss, just like her brain had the second the doorbell had chimed and he had set foot inside the quaint, crumbling family bakery shop. She'd made a batch of apple oatmeal cookies just before he showed up. She had probably smelled like cinnamon. She hoped he hadn't minded.

The tinkling of metal snapped her head up from the empty mixing bowl. Her eyes darted through the archway of the bakery's cramped kitchen and over to the front door, only to be met with the sight of an elderly lady, laden with shopping bags, walking out. Giggles had served her some chamomile tea and a slice of strawberry shortcake earlier. Her pursed, garishly pink lips had stretched into a smile when she had laid them down, so she hoped that there'd be a tip waiting in the jar on the counter when she went out to check later.

Letting out a sigh, her eyes drifted up to the clock on the wall. It was much too early for his lunch break. But at least it was a little bit closer than the last time that she'd looked two minutes ago. As her gaze left the clock hands though, it fell on the group of friends sat just within her earshot as she worked away in the kitchen. She'd tried to tell them that they didn't need to come along to keep her company, but here they were anyway. It wasn't uncommon for them to visit when she was keeping the shop running, but today wasn't exactly a convenient time. Although, considering she still had a while before lunch time, she was fine letting them waste away their morning here. And besides, their mindless chatter was more interesting than the radio. Tanner was relentlessly babbling to Seacat about his upcoming '2 month anniversary' date with Lela, but it was clear that Seacat's interest was occupied mostly by the card tower he was constructing. Coral was contributing a little more now that Rascal had given up on trying to start a conversation with her after stumbling over every word that tried to exit his mouth. Instead he'd resorted to folding the paper napkin Giggles had handed him his cookie in earlier into a lopsided heart, which he shyly slid over to Coral. Only for her to say "Hey, nice!" and make him a bumpy, sad excuse of a turtle in return, which was a start but not exactly the response he'd been hoping for. So instead he folded their receipt up into a paper airplane, which he playfully launched at her mass of golden curls, where it stuck, defying gravity and completely entangled. Giggling she took it out and fired it back at him.

Giggles smiled at them fondly. Their antics never failed to amuse her and although they may irritate her if she was trying to concentrate, like how she should have been on the pasty she was supposed to be working on for a blueberry pie her mom had asked her to make, today she couldn't seem to get mad at them. Usually snapping a quick "Guys, keep it down" would sort them out, or maybe even a "You'll be driving business away if you keep acting like that" if things were getting particularly out of hand. But today the thought didn't even cross her mind. The whirlwind in her brain had settled into a light breeze. She felt like the ocean on those days where she couldn't even catch a wave if she tried. And all because she knew she'd be seeing him in a mere matter of minutes.

As excited as she was for lunchtime to arrive, she wasn't looking forward to kicking her friends out though. She knew that they wouldn't care about having the leave the bakery, because they had a great expanse of sand, sea and sky waiting to be soaked up whilst they still could. But she also knew that they would start asking questions why she wanted rid of them, which she didn't exactly feel prepared to answer.

"Yeah, so this guy I'm majorly crushing on is coming over for lunch and I want to spend every second I can with him all to myself and you can't meet him anyway because you'd all flip your shit and call me crazy, because I probably am, but I don't even care because if being crazy means feeling like this every day then I want to be sent to an institution, and I've got so much I want to talk to him about even though I only saw him on Saturday and haven't stopped thinking about him since, so yeah, you've got to leave...like...now."

Even in her head it sounded ridiculous.

Did she really just admit that she had a crush on him? Was that even what this was? A crush? Crushes felt juvenile. It wasn't a crush. Whatever it was, it didn't seem to fit under a label.

But it was true. She hadn't been able to stop thinking about him since Saturday, try as she might. Her brain felt as though it had been floating on a cloud somewhere just above her head, wrapped up in cotton candy that enveloped it in a permanent hug. Her lips were permanently stretched out into a smile, stuck to her face like raspberry taffy. Even just thinking back to that night made her insides melt. She was practically fondue at this point. Perhaps she should go to a dentist; she was probably giving herself a cavity.

If she could take this feeling and bottle it she'd keep it forever. Tuck it away on a high kitchen shelf, out of reach from prying eyes and curious fingers. And if she ever felt sad she'd reach up, probably having to stand on a chair, pull it down and open it up. If it had a scent it would smell like garlic, beachwood and chrome, and would tickle her nostrils. But she'd be so terrified of losing it she'd just hug the bottle to her chest and bask in the memory alone. She hoped it wouldn't just become a distant memory, that _he_ would become just a memory, a fleeting moment in time of joy she couldn't even begin to fathom…

She didn't let herself think about it any longer.

Instead she thought about his hair. Would he have secured it into its usual place or would it be sat in that messy style like last week, where it flopped down over his forehead? Maybe that's just what happened to it after he'd been working on cars all morning. What colour t-shirt would he be wearing? Maybe he wouldn't be wearing a t-shirt at all… No, that's not what she'd meant to think… But she certainly wasn't complaining. Her eyes glazed over and her lips spread out into a dreamy grin so wide she thought the taffy might start to buckle in the middle.

As she daydreamed about his smile and what was hidden underneath that leather jacket, her hand slipped on the counter and almost toppled a bottle of milk. She gasped and grabbed it before any of its contents could spill, but still let herself have one second more to think about the dimple on his chin before screwing the top back on and placing it back in the fridge, like she should have done before she got so distracted by her ridiculous biker boy fantasies.

Shaking her head, she spotted the butter she needed for the pastry and brought it back to the workstation and empty mixing bowl that she still hadn't seemed to have filled. Pushing thoughts of him as far to the back of her mind as they'd go, she collected her ingredients together. But as she set down the bag of flour she immediately snapped back into a daydream about his biceps: how they'd looked under his shirt at dinner, how they'd felt around her- God, did she have any self-control? Or had he hypnotized her? She felt like she was under a spell.

She reached up to open the cabinet hiding the sugar and her hand brushed against a note taped to the wooden door. Clearly she'd been in this daze since she arrived that morning because she hadn't noticed it until now. Taking it down, her eyes tripped across the words, still barely managing to maintain concentration. It reminded her of the note she'd written him last week. The one where she'd sketched the Rodents symbol in the corner. Had he liked it? Where was it now? Did he still have it?

'Hi Gen, if there's not enough sugar left in the bag in here there's another in the cupboard by the door. If there's any trouble just call your dad. Thank you for taking care of the shop, Sweetie. I can't wait to taste that blueberry pie, save a slice for when I get back! Remember, bake from your heart! Love, Mom xxx'

Bake from your heart. Her mom always said that. And she'd always thought that it was stupid; what did it even mean? Then again, her heart felt as if it was pumping pure sugar today. Maybe she wouldn't need that extra bag after all.

With her mom's words taking on a new meaning, she set to work. If she couldn't put her feelings aside in order to concentrate then why not use them to her advantage and pour them into the pie? After all, it could only make the experience more enjoyable. Her smile softened as she picked up a wooden spoon and twirled it between her fingers, feeling a melody begin to dance on her tongue. It tasted sweet, just like everything else today. Pies were sweet, maybe it could help her. So emptying the contents into the mixing bowl, taking no notice of scales and measuring cups, just working with instinct and whatever hazy thoughts she could drag out of her head, she started to bake. And as she relaxed into her work, finally feeling settled with her emotions, a song began to string itself together, as it often seemed to nowadays.

Giggles: "Make it work, make it easy

Make it clever, craft it into pieces

Make it sweet, crimp the edges

Make it sour and serve with lemon wedges

Even doubt can be delicious

And it washes off of all the dirty dishes

When it's done, I can smile;

It's on someone else's plate for a while

I'll place it on display

And then I'll slice and serve my worries away"

With all the undeniable happiness whirring away inside her, even the worst of situations didn't seem so bad. Nothing a little garnishing with perspective couldn't fix anyway. Everything felt perfectly in balance, like the world had stopped spinning to smell the roses. Or in her case, the freshly baked brownies she'd just stacked up in the bakery's display case. And even if she did start to get worry about something, if she was pouring her heart out into this pie then it wouldn't be something she'd have to worry about for much longer. Soon it would be bubbling away between syrupy blueberries and buttery pastry, and then hopefully in someone's stomach. If she could pour her feelings out as easily as a cup of sugar then she'd never have to worry about anything again; she could just bake it up and forget it ever existed, or at least make it look prettier.

Giggles: "I can fix this

I can twist it into sugar, butter covered pieces

Never mind what's underneath it

I have done it before

I'll bake me a door to help me get through

I learned that from you

Mama, it's amazing what baking can do"

Taking one last look at the note her mom left her and savouring her smile, she stuck it back on the cabinet door and dug her hands into the dough mixture in the bowl, feeling her apparent endless stream of joy flooding through her fingertips as she kneaded it. And as she heard her friends all start to laugh in the other room, her mind, and the song, wandered to them.

Giggles: "Make it up and surprise them

Tell them all my secrets but disguise them

So they dance on the tongues

Of the very people that they're secrets from

Make it soon, make it better

Though, better never lasts forever

I'll make it small so it fits

Even this

Even now

Even as the walls come tumbling down

Even as I can't stop remembering how

Every door we ever made, we never once walked out"

Her mom always looked adversity in the eye and smiled, it was something Giggles really admired about her. Perhaps she'd found some of that strength in herself this past week every time she pushed herself out of her comfort zone. Even after everything she'd been through, that _they'd_ been through, especially this past year, her mom always put on a brave face and kept ploughing ahead with a smile. She never gave up. And even though her world had been tipped upside down this week, Giggles hadn't given up either. Whether down to maturity or experience though was another question, one she didn't want to ponder. Perhaps because of the memories it stirred, perhaps because of what it could mean for the future.

Giggles: "Something I never got the chance to ask him about…"

But as her surroundings drained of colour and her vision paled, she swallowed and dropped her eyes back to the big, ceramic bowl. Love. That's what she'd poured into that ball of pastry dough. That's what had been pumping through her veins since Saturday night. That's what really mattered and she shouldn't let herself lose sight of it so easily. Whether she was in love with Butchy or not was a whole different question, one which frankly scared her shitless. But one thing she knew in her heart was that she loved the feeling that being around him gave her. So an unfinished blueberry pie and a dreary memory were not going to get in her way.

Giggles: "So with flour on my hands

I'll show them all how

Goddamn happy I am"

After rolling out her pastry and pressing it into the tin to be pre-baked, she slid it into the oven, shut the door, grinned at the pie crust under the warm, golden light then sprung to her feet and clutched the tea towel she'd used to protect her hands to her chest. A dreamy smile filled her face as she relished in the feelings she'd finally allowed herself to feel. She spun through the archway that connected the rest of the bakery to the little kitchen and sprawled her back out across the counter as she sang. Luckily it was empty save for her friends, because no doubt when she'd look back on this later, when a little more sense had worked its way back into her brain, if she'd have had a bigger audience she'd have been mortified. As supportive as her friends were though, it didn't stop the surprised expressions springing to their faces as they watched her sing, dust the flour off her hands and twirl around in her apron.

Giggles: "Sugar, butter, flour

Don't let me down

Let's see the next amazing thing baking does now!"

Well if baking had already brought Butchy through the door and into her life then it would have to try pretty damn hard to top itself.

So absorbed in her own bubble of bliss, she didn't even notice her friends start to fondly laugh at her. But she certainly did when Rascal's paper plane made a crash landing on her forehead before nose diving onto the counter. She picked it up and smiled at it; the thought of getting annoyed, even a little bit, didn't cross her mind.

"What's got into you?" Seacat asked with a smirk.

"Yeah, I thought bursting into song in pubic was my thing," Coral teased.

"Nothing," Giggles replied, only managing to suppress her smile the tiniest bit. But she did drop her gaze down to the paper plane she was toying with.

"Damn, I wanna get some of this 'nothing' if it makes you act like that," Seacat continued.

"Act like what?" Giggles asked, clearly playing dumb.

"Like Rascal after two beers."

"Hey, come on, dude," Rascal frowned, slapping Seacat's arm.

"He didn't mean it in a bad way, Rascal," Giggles said, offering him a reassuring smile, which really meant that her expression didn't change much, not that it could anyway. She didn't think she'd be able to stop smiling if she tried.

"No, of course not, it's not my fault you're a lightweight," Seacat teased.

"Hey, give me my plane back," Rascal called to Giggles, choosing to only respond to Seacat's comment with an eye roll.

"Whatever you say," she giggled, straightening out the slightly crumpled tip and throwing it back to him with such grace that it landed neatly in his palm.

"Okay but seriously, Giggles, what's got into you?"

"I don't know what you mean. Am I not allowed to just be having a good day?"

"Not when you're singing into a whisk and dancing on the job."

"This is a spatula."

"Bless you."

"Yeah, come on, we all saw you making out with the wall, you're not fooling anyone," Rascal said, working on an upgrade for his paper plane.

"I was not making out with the wall," she protested, placing the spatula back down on the counter and crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

"You were about three minutes away from it though," Seacat shot back.

"I'm fine, I swear."

"Hmm," Coral said, getting up from her seat, clearly not satisfied with her answer. She stood opposite Giggles with a suspicious stare that she was sure could see right into her brain. Too bad it was overrun with candyfloss cobwebs, she probably wouldn't be able to see anything. Despite the pressure of being under her best friend's critical eye, the smile still didn't seem to be budging from her face. In fact, she almost felt like she was about to burst out laughing. "About as 'fine' as you can be with a raging case of the crushes."

"Doctor Cole, do we have a diagnosis?" Seacat asked.

"Nurse Bennett, this is one of the worst cases of the crushes I've ever seen in my career."

"Is there a cure?"

"Oh of course, nothing a little chat with her friends can't solve," Coral said, flashing Giggles a mischievous grin.

"Oh no, guess I'll never be the same again," Giggles sighed before rolling her eyes at the pair.

"Oh come on, just spill it! We're your friends, we won't judge you!" Coral exclaimed.

'You don't know who it is,' Giggles thought.

"We just want to be happy with you!" she continued.

"You can do that without me telling you anything, you know," Giggles said.

"Well yeah, but it's a lot harder," Coral giggled before Seacat decided to step in to try his hand at reasoning with her.

"Look, this guy must be a pretty big deal if you're still this happy after your date on Thursday night-"

"It was on Saturday, wasn't it?"

"Tanner!" Giggles hissed as a frown flickered across her face for a split second. Just a mere technical difficulty, nothing to worry about.

"What?" Coral cried, bouncing her astonished gaze from Giggles to her brother and back again.

"Ha, nothing, I didn't say anything," Tanner said, burying his awkward smile in a half-eaten muffin he'd suddenly found an appetite for again. He had never been a good liar.

"So that's where you were on Saturday night!" Coral exclaimed.

"And here I was thinking you were ill," Seacat said, giving her a teasingly disapproving look as he leaned back in his chair and folded his arms.

"I can't believe you knew about this and didn't tell me!" Coral said to Tanner, who could only seem to muster a grimace masquerading as a smile.

"It's not my business to tell," Tanner said.

"What's with all these secrets? Since when have we started hiding stuff from each other?" Seacat started, before Giggles jumped in.

"Okay, okay, I went out on a date," she admitted, holding her hands up. "Is that such a crime?"

"It is if you don't tell us about it," Rascal chimed in.

"I just wanted to keep it to myself for a little bit, try to understand it all for my own first, you know?" she asked.

"No, not really," Coral said bluntly, but with a ditziness that Giggles couldn't help but laugh at. Coral wasn't exactly known for being a terribly private person, it went against her entire existence.

"Well you haven't stopped smiling all day so I take it that it went well?" Seacat prompted.

"Yeah," she sighed, shyly dropping her gaze to the woodgrain of the counter. "It was...really nice."

"Aww really?" Coral asked. She looked at her with the eyes of a little girl listening to a fairytale.

"Yeah, for a first date it was-"

"You just said 'date'."

"...Yeah."

"So you finally acknowledge it's a 'date'? And that he's your boyfriend?"

"Okay, he's not my boyfriend," Giggles said, stepping in before she got too carried away.

"But he basically is, right?"

"Carriel, they've been on two dates," Tanner said, trying to talk some reason into her.

"Only one was a proper date," Giggles corrected.

"A 'proper date'? What does that mean? The old wine and dine deal?" Coral asked, grabbing at any snippets of information she could.

"Well he took me out for a fancy meal at a pretty restaurant-"

"Oh yeah, was the food any good?" Tanner asked over Coral's overly dramatic gasps.

"It was incredible, everything on the menu sounded amazing," Giggles said. "You and Lela will love it."

"Wait, he took you to Giovanni's?!" Apparently she'd actually been paying attention to all of her brother's girlfriend talks.

"Shit, Giggles, he's not playing around is he?" Seacat said, looking at her rather incredulously.

"I don't think I'd even be able to afford the breadsticks at Giovanni's," Rascal mumbled to himself.

"Oh my god, Giggles, you guys are practically married already," Coral gushed.

"Stop overreacting," Giggles scolded, slapping her arm with a tea towel. But not even a second passed before they both descended into fits of giddy giggles. She felt about as mature as a Barbie doll but she didn't care.

"Well Giggles, I just want to say for the record that I'm really happy for you," Seacat said once the girls had managed to calm down a little bit. "Whoever this guy is, he must be pretty great if he's made you this happy. And I'm proud of you for taking it at your own pace."

"Yeah, don't let anyone freak you out," Tanner said, giving his sister a pointed look.

"I am not freaking her out," Coral argued. "I'm just...passionate."

"I know, I don't mind, it's nice that you care so much," Giggles said, smiling at her fondly. "It's nice that you all do."

"Hey, any time," Seacat said with a grin.

"Yeah, we'll always be here for you," Rascal agreed, before adding with a chuckle, "I haven't stuck around with you guys since middle school for nothing."

That drew a laugh from everyone's lips. But then silence fell over the group, the only sound to be hear was the low humming of the oven. Knowing her friends though, Giggles didn't trust it to last long...

"Okay, so, I know you're taking things steady," Seacat began.

"We're not going steady," Giggles jumped in, almost too defensively.

"Let me finish," Seacat shot back, pausing before he continued. "But is there any chance that we might be meeting him any time soon?"

"Yeah!" Coral agreed. But when she saw Giggles' face pale she soon tried to explain herself. "Not because I want to freak out or anything. I won't freak out, I promise. I just want to get to know him because you're making him sound like a pretty great guy already and you've barely even said anything."

"He could come to the end of summer party on Friday," Rascal suggested. "That's not super formal, he could just hang out like the rest of us."

"That's a great idea!" Seacat exclaimed.

"And see all of you get drunk out of your minds? I don't think so," Giggles chuckled, hoping to brush off the topic with some humour.

"Oh come on," Seacat said. "We'll be on our best behaviour."

"I'll believe that when I see it," she snorted.

"Giggles-"

"Guys, let it go, we'll meet him eventually. I thought you were supposed to be chill," Tanner said, flicking a piece of muffin at Seacat to get him to shut up.

"I am chill," he protested, balling up his napkin and launching at his head.

It just bounced off his quiff.

"Then back off," Tanner said. "It's not your relationship to get involved in. She'll ask him if she wants to, right?"

"Right," she agreed with a satisfied smile.

"Since when did you become such a love expert?" Rascal asked him with a chuckle.

"Since him and Lela started going steady, apparently," Seacat said with a teasing eye roll.

"What can I say? She brings out the best in me," Tanner said with a cheesy grin.

"Ew," Coral grimaced.

"I thought Mom told you to stop being so jealous," Tanner said cooly. "You'll get wrinkles if you keep looking at me like that."

"Shut up," she grumbled before turning back to Giggles. "You know we only get like this because we care, right?"

"I know, I know," Giggles chuckled, shaking her head.

"You promise we'll be able to meet him one day though?" she asked hopefully, almost begging, like she wanted a puppy.

"Sure," she sighed with a smile. She wondered what they'd think if they knew that they'd already met him...several times.

"At the party?"

"Don't push it," she giggled, pointing a warning finger at Coral before stepping back into the kitchen to check on her pie crust.

"Wait, I'm not done with boy talk yet," Coral said, practically jumping over the counter to grab her arm and stop her from leaving.

"What more do you want to know?"

"Everything!"

"We'd be here forever," Giggles chuckled.

"I'm willing to do whatever necessary."

"I wouldn't even know where to start."

"He's too good for words?" Coral asked with a playful, knowing smile.

All she could manage to do was giggle in response. She could feel the blush raging across her cheeks.

"Oooh you've got it bad!" Coral exclaimed. "When are you seeing him next? Have you got another date planned?"

"No, not really."

"What? Why not?" she asked, looking horrified.

"We just didn't arrange one," Giggles admitted, before smirking and adding, "He is stopping by for lunch though."

"Oh my god, when?!"

"I don't know, within the hour, I think," Giggles said after a quick glance at the clock. Why hadn't she checked the time when he'd arrived last week? "So I need you guys out of here ASAP."

"Are you kidding?"

"No-"

"He's going to be right here in an hour and we can't even stay to meet him?" Coral asked. She looked traumatised but Giggles had very little sympathy; she had always been known to over-dramatize things.

"No."

"But why not?"

"Because," Giggles tried to start, before letting out a frustrated sigh. How could she even begin to put her reasoning into words? "I just want some alone time with him, okay? To just keep things between us for a little bit, make sure it's...real, before we let everyone else in. Please, Coral."

Realising she didn't have much more of an argument, Coral sighed and nodded. But her face soon broke out into a smile. "Okay, but if I still haven't met him before your wedding day then there'll be trouble," she teased.

"Okay, calm down, we've only kissed once," Giggles laughed.

"You've kissed him?!"

"Maybe…" But her attempt at subtlety wasn't very successful. "Okay, yeah, twice actually," she confessed, melting into a puddle of dreamy syrup at the very thought of it.

"Oh my god, you have to tell me everything now! And I mean everything, no scrimping on the details, even if they're messy-"

"Messy?"

"I don't know, that's why I need the details!" Coral exclaimed.

"Okay, okay, just not now," Giggles said, daring another glance at the clock. Barely a minute had passed but with every second she was getting more antsy.

"Fine, but I'm coming over tonight and you're telling me everything," Coral bargained.

"Deal, but only if you help me get rid of the boys," Giggles said, dodging her gaze over to Tanner, Seacat and Rascal, who were all now engrossed in a conversation of their own, which she could only assume was about girls, pizza or board wax.

"What do you mean?"

"Just help me get them out of here without me having to explain everything again," Giggles said, before adding with hopeful eyes. "Please!"

"What do you want me to do?"

"I don't know, you're the actress, think of something believable."

She paused for a second before a smirk crawled across her face. Giggles knew calling her an actress would get her in a good mood. Turning back to the boys, Coral raised her voice, catching their attention and said, "Hey Rascal, don't you owe Seacat and I a burger?"

"What?" came his response. He looked more shocked by the fact that she'd singled him out to talk to more than what she'd actually said though.

"We whooped your team's ass at volleyball the other day and I don't remember you keeping up your end of the deal."

"Yeah, and you owe me a soda from Saturday night," Seacat jumped in.

"Hey, Giggles was on my team too. Why is it just me that has to pay? And that soda was just because I forgot my wallet."

Giggles dug her purse out from under the counter, grabbed a ten dollar bill and handed it to Coral over the counter. "There's my contribution."

"Thank you," Coral said with a smile, half grateful, half smug with the fact that her plan was actually working.

"Go knock yourselves out," Giggles chuckled.

"Wait, are we serious, am I actually buying you guys lunch?" Rascal asked, a little stunned by the swift change in conversation topic.

"Yeah, come on, I've been craving fries all morning," Coral said, walking over and offering him her hand so that she could pull him to his feet.

"But-"

"No, buts, you agreed to the wager, right Seacat?"

"Right," Seacat agreed, hopping to his feet and dragging Tanner to his feet and out of his daydream. You could practically see Lela in his eyes.

"What about you? We said we'd keep you company," Rascal said, turning his attention to Giggles. Part of him seemed genuinely concerned about leaving her.

"I'll be fine, I'm a big girl, I can handle myself," she chuckled, praying that that would be convincing enough to keep them going on their way.

"Come on, dude, you'll have to pay up sooner or later," Seacat said with a friendly slap to the back.

"Fine," he sighed in defeat. "But we're going to have to stop by my house first; I only brought a twenty out with me."

"Good boy," Coral teased, ruffling his hair as the four of them made their way towards the door.

"See you later, Giggles," Rascal said with a half-hearted smile as he was pushed out the door.

"Bye!" she called as the rest of her friends bid her farewell.

Just before the door could close fully behind them though, Coral hung back and poked her head back into the bakery, whispering a quick, "Have fun! Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" before running to catch back up with the boys.

'That's not a lot', Giggles thought to herself, chuckling aloud as she relished in the silence that enveloped her now that her friends had left. And to think, there was just a few minutes until she'd be with him again. That silence was so sweet she could taste it.

So the shrill scream of the timer she'd set for her pie crust was an abrupt wake-up call.

* * *

Her stomach grumbled. Surely it was lunchtime now. She glanced at the clock again for the third time that minute. This was ridiculous. She couldn't focus on anything. She'd been making this pastry lattice over the heap of blueberries for twenty minutes. Twenty minutes that felt like twenty years. Sighing, she tucked the last corner into place and grabbed the jug of egg wash she'd prepared earlier. Three brushes of the egg mixture onto the pastry later and she was already watching the clock again. She was being pathetic. Surely she had more self-control than this. Taking a deep breath, she dipped the brush back into the egg wash and set back to work. Five excruciating brushes later and her eyes were pulled towards the clock again. She was convinced it was a magnet.

She couldn't take it anymore. Marching into the empty bakery shop, she pulled a chair away from the closest table and set it up under the clock. Balancing atop its seat, she reached up and plucked it off the wall. She took one last look at it before placing it face-down on the table. Egg washing was somehow more painful now that she couldn't indulge herself in time-checks. But once she was done, her smile returned as she admired her work and slid it into the oven. Her eyes drifted through the doorway to the spot on the wall where the clock had once sat. Damn it. She poked her head out into the bakery and looked through the window. No sign of him. She wandered over to the oven and idly tapped her fingers on the counter top. She set the timer. Her fingers started to tap again. She looked out the window. Still no sign. She wiped down the serving counter. No sign. She wiped down every table in the bakery. Should she have expected anything to have changed? Wandering back to the serving counter she plucked at ideas of ways to occupy her clearly flighty mind. She straightened the stock in the display cabinet. She rewrote anything messy on the chalk menu board. She restocked the napkin holder. Eventually she reached for her sketchbook; she'd exhausted all other activities. She spun the pencil between her fingers a few times before placing it to the paper. Flowing lines twisted together as an image of the lady from earlier, the one with all the shopping bags, started to manifest in strokes of charcoal. Her wide-brimmed hat had been flooded with flowers and it looked like she'd never seen a speck of dust in her whole life. Perhaps she'd walked straight out of a children's storybook and into the bakery that morning. She began adorning the sketch with items she thought may have been hidden away in the shopping bags: a string of pearls, a jade brooch, a pair of white gloves, a handbag with a-

The door burst open.

"Hey."

He was panting. Had he run all the way from the garage? Unruly strands of his hair fell over his forehead. Some were plastered to his forehead with sweat, which dappled his face in glassy beads. Engine oil was smeared across his white t-shirt and presumably the flannel shirt he had balled up in his hand, which was even more grubby, if that was possible.

But he was here. And Giggles couldn't contain her joy.

"Hi."

Her grin felt enormous, like it had been distorted by a carnival mirror.

"You still have time to make me a sandwich?" he asked, already wincing in case what he feared came true.

"Yeah, yeah, of course."

Her smile got even wider when his face cracked into a smile.

"I'm sorry, this client was refusing to leave until we got his car fixed but it was a job that really should have taken all day," he explained as he walked over to the counter and gingerly set his dirty flannel onto one of the stools.

"That's pretty impressive you managed to get it done so quickly then. Was your boss impressed?"

"I don't know, he said I did a good job, but I didn't hang around for long after; I already knew I was late. I think knowin' I was coming here was the only thing that got me through it," he finished with a chuckle as Giggles handed him a menu. But as he looked down at it, he caught sight of the state of his hands, then his t-shirt, then his jeans- "Jesus, look at the state of me."

"It must have been one hell of a job," she giggled.

He set the menu back on the counter and peered at it from where he stood. He looked like a little boy who'd been playing in the mud and had been taken into a palace, like he was scared that just being there would make his surroundings messy.

"It's okay, you can sit down, you know," she prompted.

"I can't, I'm filthy."

"You can clean yourself up a bit in the kitchen if you want," she suggested.

He looked at her differently then. "You sure?"

"Yeah, there's no one else in here, I don't mind. And besides, I could use the company whilst I make you your sandwich."

"I'll take a turkey club then," he said with a grin as she led him around the counter and into the kitchen.

He followed her over to the sink and once she had washed her hands he did the same, lathering soap suds all the way up to his elbows to try to rid his arms of the streaks of grey. Giggles spotted that he was done from the corner of her eye and stopped cutting up a tomato just long enough to toss him a towel, then a washcloth.

She kept sneaking glances at him as she prepared his lunch, only managing a few seconds on concentration before she'd risk another that would immediately cause her face to break into a smile.

"Shit, I'm makin' such a mess," he muttered to himself, furrowing his brow. If anything he was just pushing the dirt around, making the washcloth as filthy as he was. "I've ruined this."

Giggles didn't even look at it. "Hey, it's fine." She opened a cabinet to the left of her leg and pulled out a wicker basket stuffed with other used rags. "That's what the laundry's for," she said with a smile.

He tried his best to get what oil he could off his skin; he didn't even want to attempt his clothes, knowing he'd be sure to ruin them, then tossed the washcloth into the basket and leant against the counter. If the kitchen was a clock face he was at three o'clock. Her hands, despite their giddy trembling, were working as fast as they could to try to move her from twelve. She could see him out of the corner of her eye, but being in the room with him alone was enough to set her blood alight.

"You want some help?" he offered. She could tell he felt awkward just standing there.

"Not with your hands in that state," she chuckled. "I'm pretty much done anyway. Just got to toast some bread." Laying down her knife, she headed into the pantry to rifle through the bread bins.

"Oh come on, I tried my best to get it all off."

"Well I'm not risking you getting poisoned."

"'Cause you don't want to think about a world without me?" he asked with a smirk. Her head was still buried in the pantry, but she could just tell from his voice.

"No, because we can't afford bad business," she replied, stepping back into the kitchen with two slices of bread and a smirk to match his.

"Okay, okay, I see how it is," he chuckled as she dropped the slices of bread into their slots. Before she could push them down into place though, he reached across and pressed the lever for her. Puzzled, she opened her mouth to speak, but his smirk just broadened. "You're welcome."

"Are you that desperate to do something?" she challenged, stifling a laugh.

"Hey, don't say I never did anything nice for ya," he said.

"Start a toaster? Golly, how could I ever survive without you?" she asked with a teasing smile.

Without even trying the gap between them had closed. Less than a step and they would practically be in each others arms, chest against chest, toes kissing beneath boots and sneakers.

"Don't tell me you want to find out," he said, only half-joking. His smile had changed. Less cocksure, more...sincere. His eyes looked like they were fond of her, they were soaking her up; their deep brown colour was paling in the sunlight. Maybe they were drinking the blonde right out of her hair.

Her own eyes began to roam over his face, inspecting it like it was a piece of fine art. Part of her believed that it was. Freshly shaved stubble rolled across his jaws like the lawn of an expensive hotel. There was a scar on the bridge of his nose, right at the top. It looked old; she hadn't noticed it before, but it was sort of endearing. Maybe she'd hear about how he'd got it one day. And there was a rather prominent freckle just poking out of his hairline- Hang on, was that engine oil on his cheek?

"You're such a mess," she softly giggled, licking her thumb and affectionately wiping at the shadow of oil.

"I'm not four," he laughed, scrunching up his face and batting her hand away. But his protest didn't last long; her touch made him melt beneath her fingers, like he'd been carved from ice, or maybe butter on a summer's day. His skin wasn't exactly soft, but it felt like a marshmallow beneath the pad of her thumb. She could practically taste it. God she hoped she didn't drool on him.

She brushed the corner of his lip and it twitched into a grin. It left her feeling like she'd just been plugged into an electrical outlet. Her skin prickled with static. Every fibre of her being pulled towards him. Had he had a magnet implanted into his face? Maybe that's what the scar was from.

They were so close she couldn't bare the distance any longer. She just kept staring at his lips, willing them to do something, willing his arm to reach around her and-

The toast sprang out of its hiding place, startling Giggles so much she jumped in place with it. A laugh was drawn from his mouth and she almost pushed the toast back down so she'd be able to hear it again.

* * *

With the sandwich fully assembled, Giggles handed it to him with a smile. The plate was lined with hand-painted leaves. It was one of her favourites. Mayonnaise already began to collect in the creases of his mouth after a few bites. It was adorable, which was a word she didn't think would ever fit him. It would be like trying to stuff him into one of her little brother's baseball uniforms. But somehow in that moment she couldn't think of anything more perfect. She had to resist the urge to lick it off. Instead she gathered enough courage to step forwards and wipe it away with the pad of her thumb. He stopped mumbling his appreciation into the slices of bread just long enough to grin at her. It was a lopsided, turkey-stuffed grin, but it was still infectious.

Once again they were in this position: so close, but barely touching, yearning for that connection all the more. He swallowed and set the plate down, but kept the sandwich in his hand. With his free hand he played with a strand of her hair, pushing it back from her face. Really it should have been up in the ponytail with the rest of her hair, but this strand was about as stubborn as he was; it hung down beside her ear, clearly wanting a front row seat for the action. From doing this, he noticed a faint smudge of charcoal on along her cheekbone.

"You're as bad as I am," he chuckled, rubbing at it. His brow was creased as if he was really having to concentrate.

"What is it?" she asked, wondering what he'd found.

"I don't know, pencil lead?" he suggested. "That's what it looks like anyway. You'd better not tell me you go puttin' that stuff in the food."

"Oh no, I, uh, I was just um, drawing before you arrived," she said. She didn't understand why, but something about it was painfully awkward to admit.

"Drawing?" Once again he surprised her with how genuine his interest seemed. He continued eating, but the sandwich was the last thing on his mind.

"Yeah, but just because it was quiet and all the other jobs had been done and it was just a quick doodle anyway, nothing special-"

"Hey, no need to explain yourself, I only asked 'cause of the mess you made," he smiled, tapping her cheek with the knuckle of his sandwich hand. "And even if you think it's 'nothin' special', I'm sure it's a hell of a lot better than anything I could do."

She chuckled but didn't bring her gaze back up to meet his, still too embarrassed about her drawing and how defensive she had been about it. "Oh come on, you can't be that bad."

"Well, stickmen are a standard but I could probably manage a tree, or a bird, anything more and you'd be pushin' it though," he said before taking another bite of his sandwich.

"Birds are pretty hard."

"Okay, maybe not a bird then. Not a good one, anyway. Were you drawin' a bird? You're gonna put me to shame now, aren't you?"

"No, it was just a sketch of a lady that was in here earlier."

"A 'sketch', shit, that means it was all fancy and accurate," he said. Nothing about him was fancy or accurate. Maybe that's why he looked so intrigued. "You like art and stuff then?"

"Yeah, I guess," she admitted, still somewhat bashful to be talking about herself. "I've always drawn and painted, ever since I was a little kid. I decorated everyone's surfboards for them last summer."

"Seriously?" He seemed impressed.

She nodded meekly. She was looking at him again now, but still shuffled her weight from foot to foot.

"You fancy giving my bike a new paint job?" he asked with a smirk.

"I could try. But it's a bit of an alien medium to me, so I don't know how it would turn out," she chuckled.

"I'm just gonna pretend like I know what you said and move on," he said, drawing another laugh out of her.

The conversation ground to a comfortable halt, almost as if their bodies were pausing to absorb the other's presence whilst they had the chance. Giggles couldn't take her eyes off him, scared that if she blinked she'd be alone in the bakery again. Her gaze kept flitting from the tawny flecks in his eyes to the droopy strands of hair trailing over his forehead then to his lips, which were curled into a grin again. She'd never seen him smile as much as he had this week when he was with her. It just made her want to smile back all the more. They had her transfixed. She wanted nothing more than to feel them against hers again. Every aching second pulled their bodies closer, their muscles moved without their brains' acknowledgement. Inch by inch. Breath by breath. His hand reached up to touch her cheek again. She melted into his touch. Butter. Or chocolate. Or-

An egg timer. An egg timer that started shrieking just as all of Giggles' touch receptors rushed to her cheek so that she could feel his touch as deeply as physically possible. His eyes scanned the room for the source of the noice, shaken from the moment, hazy-eyed, like he'd just woken up from a dream.

Tearing herself away from him was ridiculously painful. His skin was like an adhesive, he'd become one big band aid. She willed him to ignore it, to just hold her and kiss her anyway. But the moment was gone. Reluctantly, she turned her back and strode over to the oven to take out the pie. Damn blueberries, she thought, feeling herself scowling at the honey brown crust and bubbling, purple syrup peeking out from beneath it.

"Damn, that almost looks good as it smells."

She hadn't noticed him follow her over to the oven, so she was rather startled when she found him eyeing the pie hungrily over her shoulder. He'd already finished his sandwich.

She could say the same about him. But then she looked into his eyes again and realised they were so much nicer than musky exhaust fumes.

"Any chance of me getting to try some of that?" he asked hopefully.

"Well it's got to cool down first."

"How long will that take?"

"How long do you have?" she asked, noticing his eyes twitch to look at his watch and feeling a pang of hurt.

"Like five minutes," he sighed. She couldn't tell whether he was disappointed with himself or time itself.

She could feel how disheartened she looked. It made her feel even worse when he noticed and furrowed his brow.

"I'm sorry, I should have got someone to cover that job for me-"

"Hey, don't apologise, it's okay, it's your job. You did the right thing," she reassured him.

"But we've had no time to see each other."

"Well at least we have seen each other. That's more than can be said for yesterday or the day before."

"You find the good in everything," he chuckled, laying his arm loosely around her waist. "Even me."

"Especially you."

"I'll make it up to you," he said. "I owe you more than this after Saturday night. This is hardly any way to follow that up."

She glanced down at his greasy t-shirt and just laughed. "I'm just happy to see you in the flesh. I've been thinking about you so much I think I was starting to forget what you actually looked like."

"You've been thinking about me? That makes two of us," he chuckled, before adding, "Kidding. Have you really been thinking about me though?"

"Of course, I haven't been able to think about anything else, especially after…"

"...How we ended things?" he suggested. She nodded and so did he, but she could tell he was using the time to think of a way to respond. "Was it okay? ...How we...said goodbye, I mean."

"Yeah." She definitely replied too quickly. She blushed. "Yeah...It was...I don't even think there's a word for it."

"You don't think it was too fast?" She could tell it hadn't been fast for him, this was his strange concern for her taking over again.

"Well I've fallen pretty fast, might as well keep up with it," she said coyly, playing with the material of his t-shirt, smoothing it across his chest.

"Damn, you're almost as smooth as I am," he chuckled, bending down and resting his forehead against hers.

"Almost," she agreed with a giggle.

Finally, it was happening. She was in that moment she hadn't been able to stop thinking about since Saturday again. Wrapped up in his arms, in the feeling he gave her, the feeling that kissing him gave her. She felt like she was glowing. The dull warmth of the oven, the heat from their bodies against one another. The faint smell of sweat in his hair, wafting notes of papaya body spray from her skin and the baked, sugared blueberries marrying them both together.

Breaking apart didn't get any easier. Especially when she knew how long she'd have to savour this moment for.

"Okay, as much as I'd love to stay and try a slice of that," he said, glancing across to the pie behind them. "And continue with this," he added with a small grin. "I've gotta get back to work if I want to keep my job."

"I thought you had five minutes."

"So I exaggerated a little to get a couple minutes more, is that such a crime?"

"It is if your boss is going to be mad."

"See, I knew you'd have told me to go sooner. And then we wouldn't have got a kiss, so who's really right here?"

"Me, get back to work," she chuckled. But they both knew he was right.

"But that pie," he said, looking at it longingly as he started to make his way back through to the main part of the bakery to grab his flannel shirt.

"It's still too hot, and besides, I can't risk you burning that mouth of yours."

"Just cut me a slice now then."

"I'll save one for you. Come and collect it after work, I'll bring it out back to you, okay?"

"Okay," he said with a satisfied smile. But it soon disappeared when he looked back down at his watch. "Shit."

"Go!" she ordered.

He nodded and bolted through the door. But he only got a few steps down the sidewalk before he came running back and called out, "Thanks for the sandwich."

She just smiled and shook her head. God, she hoped the afternoon went quicker than the morning had.

* * *

"Gen, what's this slice of pie doing back here?"

Giggles looked up from the table she was wiping down to see her mother's face, dappled with early evening sunlight, poking through the kitchen door. Her eyebrows were knitted together and the hand that wasn't holding the plate of blueberry pie was resting on her hip, causing the faded, floral fabric of her skirt to wrinkle.

She froze for a second, all hopes of forming a lie escaping her. "I was just saving it for later," she eventually blurted. "I was going to have it with my lunch but it didn't cool down in time."

"Do you want me to put it with the rest of the leftovers we're taking home?" she asked, already starting to walk away from the archway.

"No," Giggles replied abruptly.

Her mother stopped in her tracks and a sandy blonde lock of hair tumbled out of the bun that sat at the bottom of her neck. "Do you have other plans for this little slice of pie?" she asked skeptically, quirking one of her eyebrows.

Giggles dared a glance at the clock that was back up on the wall. She knew her mom had noticed, but she didn't say anything. It couldn't be long now. "No, it's just...it's okay, I'll sort it out."

She could tell that her mom knew she was up to something. Plastering a smile onto her face that she hoped looked as natural as she was trying to make it, Giggles watched her mother narrow her eyes and fondly shake her head as she went back to closing down the bakery for the day. Shuffling through cupboards, stock-taking, sweeping floors: this was the busiest Giggles and her mom had been all day, or at least all afternoon since she'd returned to the bakery less than five minutes after Butchy had raced back to work. Thank god she hadn't been early.

Just as she was stacking the last of the wooden chairs onto the tables that littered the bakery floor, something black and white caught her eye through front windows. Her head snapped up and her face broke into a smile when she realised it was a leather jacket and the same greasy, white t-shirt from earlier. He stopped when he saw her and smiled back. Giggles heard her mom ask her something, but couldn't even begin to make sense of any of the words, not when he was standing right there. She had to get her out of the way so that she could see him.

"Gen, didn't you hear me?"

"Huh?"

Her mother stepped out of the kitchen and Giggles' whole body tensed. She didn't dare look at Butchy, but she could feel his awkwardness make the air stiffen, even from inside.

"Are you taking the trash out or shall I?"

Perfect.

"Yeah!" Again, far too abrupt, and far too eager. She wasn't succeeding at this whole 'subtle' thing; her mom definitely knew something was up. "I mean, yeah, sure. It's pretty dusty over here and you're better at sweeping than I am, so I'll do the trash," she said, grabbing the broom she'd propped against the wall before handing it to her mother, who knew better than to question her.

With her mother's back turned, Giggles looked back up at Butchy and jerked her head, indicating for him to follow her. At first he didn't understand, just stared at her with blank, wide eyes. But then his eyes darted to follow the motion of her head and settled on the alley beside a couple of doors down from the bakery. Although hesitant, at first he darted out of view. She hurried into the kitchen, grabbed a fork, the garbage bag and the slice of pie and shut the door behind her.

Once safely out in the alleyway, she shivered at the wind whistling between the brick walls and tried to readjust her grip on the plastic, black bag. A few cold seconds passed before footsteps approached her, followed by a lopsided grin and an even floppier head of brown hair than earlier.

"Hey," he panted, crunching the gravel beneath his feet as he skidded to a halt.

"Glad you could make it," she smiled, handing him the plate and the fork. His eyes lit up almost as much as they had when he'd seen her.

"Boy do I need this after the day I've had," he said, hungrily loading up his fork. "Fuck, this is good," he moaned before he could stop himself.

Giggling, she stuffed the trash bag and said, "Well you'd better eat it fast; my mom knows it doesn't take five minutes to take the trash out."

"Was that her in there?"

"Yeah."

"She almost gave me a heart attack."

"Yeah, sorry, I hadn't thought about her being back here when you would be."

"Hey, seeing you and this pie for two minutes is better than nothing."

"Wow, that pie has put you in a good mood," she chuckled.

"No, you're just rubbing off on me."

"Don't let your friends hear you say that."

"Hey, don't worry, I'll be back to 'big, bad Butchy' in no time," he smirked, scraping every last morsel of pie off the plate.

"You finished that quickly," she said with a forlorn smile. Why did their encounter have to be so brief?

"Well I don't want to get you in trouble with your mom," Butchy said, handing her the plate back with a smile. She couldn't really manage one back. "Hey, come on, don't look at me like that. It looks like you think we'll never see each other again."

"I don't know when we will," she admitted. "You've got work, I'm starting school again next week, which means I won't be helping out here so..."

"We can still go out at night, or weekends," he tried.

"Yeah but with homework and curfew-"

"We see each other at Big Momma's."

"You know that's not the same." But from the way he'd said it she could tell that he did already know.

"Don't worry, we'll work something out, I'll find a way, I promise. And I never go back on those, so you've got my word. 'Kay?"

"Okay," she said, managing a somewhat more convincing smile. The conversation still ached in her mind though. She tried not to think about it. "We've still got the rest of this week though."

"See? That's more like it, now you're starting to sound more like you," he chuckled. "How about Thursday night again?"

"I can't. I've got to babysit my little brother. What about tomorrow? Or is that too soon?"

"Nothing's too soon with you," he laughed, before sighing and adding, "But I promised I'd look at Axel's bike for him; it's been actin' weird for weeks and he can't figure out what's wrong with it. What about Friday?"

"We're having a huge end of summer party down at the beach," she started.

"Oh shit, yeah, Lela's was telling me about that last night."

"I think Tanner invited her but she didn't know whether or not the rest of the bikers would want to go," Giggles continued. Butchy could tell where she was going with this.

"A big party full of surfers?"

"And bikers if you get the rest of the Rodents to come along," she cut in with a hopeful smile. "Come on, Lela would love it if the two groups could hang out together like that. And who knows? You might even have fun," she said, playfully poking his chest.

"That doesn't help me spend more time with you," he retaliated with a wry smile.

"We'll both be at the party."

"Come on, you know what I mean."

"Well maybe we'll find an opportunity to slip away on our own," she suggested.

"Fraternising right under their noses, now that is risky," he chuckled. "Maybe I'm rubbing off on you too."

"Come on, please," she pleaded, batting her eyes and fixing a coy smile.

"Gen?"

But her mother's voice from inside the bakery jerked them both back to reality. They sprang apart. Giggles brushed down her apron and Butchy adjusted his jacket before clearing his throat.

"I should get going," he said quietly.

"Yeah," she agreed with a quick nod.

"Thanks for the pie," he grinned, quickly kissing her on the cheek, then turning to run back down the alleyway.

"See you Friday?" she asked once more, watching his every move as he left, holding onto every moment with him that she could.

"...I'll see," he said, shooting her one last smirk before rounding the corner and disappearing from her sight.

 **Well, there you go! I hope you liked it! Sorry it took me so long to get done again, I've just been super busy with school stuff and interviews and all that jazz. But I've got a place on a course at my dream university, so at least the delay was worth something. And this chapter is the longest to date so it's not so bad.**

 **Originally this was going to be half the chapter, but it ended up being so long I had to just make it a chapter of its own. But I'm really happy with how it turned out, so at least it worked out in the end, hopefully you agree!**

 **If you're interested the song I included is What Baking Can Do from Waitress.**

 **Also, before I go, I just wanted to let you know what I've started posting on my tumblr again! Chapter updates, little extras, more info on characters and plot points, me rambling about stuff that inspires me and anything else you'd like to see will all be over there. So just search cherrygorilla and I should pop up. I'd love to interact with you guys over there!**

 **Anyway, I think that's all for now. Thank you for reading! See you with the next chapter!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


	6. Chapter 6: Beach Party Break Up

"Isn't this great?"

Giggles knew it was Coral before she saw her. Not because she'd heard that same voice almost every day since they were in kindergarten, but because of the lyrical way she always seemed to sound when she'd had a few drinks. Thank God she wasn't drunk yet. She didn't seem far off though; because the next thing that Giggles knew was her throwing her arms around her shoulders, almost knocking her to the ground. Stumbling to keep her balance, Coral giggled and hugged her even tighter, probably to steady herself. But then again, a little bit of alcohol did always make her more affectionate.

"Yeah," Giggles chuckled, attempting to hug her back. "Are you having fun?"

"I'm having the best time!" she exclaimed, emphasising almost every word. "Aren't you just having the best time?"

"Yeah, I guess," Giggles laughed, glancing across to Seacat and Rascal to see their take on the situation.

"How many you had, Caramel?" Seacat asked with a chuckle. Giggles hadn't heard him call her that for ages. Something about it made her want to laugh even more.

"Don't make me count, you know I suck at math," Coral whined, burying her face into Giggles' shoulder.

"Come on, let's have it," Seacat teased, slapping her backside with a serving spatula.

"Dude, we've got to serve stuff with that," Rascal hissed.

"As if you care," Seacat scoffed. Rascal's cheeks flared up in synchronisation with the grill. Seacat just smirked in response. "Don't worry, I'll make sure I flip your burger with this one," he joked, waving it in front of Rascal's face.

Coral was too busy concentrating to take notice of them. "I think four," she eventually settled on.

"Four what?" Seacat pressed.

"Cups of the stuff in those pitchers over there," Coral said, waving her hand in the vague direction of the drinks table. "Oh and this lemon thing Finn gave me."

"Fuck," Seacat laughed to himself.

"What?" she asked. Apparently she'd heard that. Or maybe she could just tell that his tone had changed.

"You are _not_ going to make it to nine o'clock," he chuckled.

"Well it's you that's going to have to deal with me, so I don't know why you're laughing," she snapped back with a frown. A second passed and she dissolved into laughter again though. Helpless laughter that doubled her over, pulling a chuckling Giggles down with her.

"I know she's not here yet, but I think Lela was right, this might actually be the best night ever," Seacat said, joining in with their laughter.

"Why?" Coral asked, trying to straighten back up, using Giggles to steady herself again.

"Because it's barely even started and you, like pretty much everybody else, are about one drink away from getting up on that rock, stripping to your underwear and covering yourself in burger mustard."

"Is that a request?" Coral asked with a smirk, already toying with lifting the hem of her t-shirt.

"No, it's inevitable," Seacat shot back, before adding, "and behave, don't show yourself up just yet. I need to get these cooked first so I'm not too preoccupied to laugh my ass off."

"I don't just exist to amuse you, you know," Coral said, furrowing her eyebrows at him despite her tipsy grin.

"Are you sure?" he challenged with a laugh. "Because you do a pretty damn good job at it."

"Fine. How many have you had?" she asked.

"How many what?"

"Drinks, you dumb fuck."

He picked up his beer from the side of the grill and waved it at her before taking a swig. "This is my second. Rascal's still on his first."

"Why?" she asked, scrunching her nose up.

"Because if I let him have another he'll be trying to cook himself on that grill," he laughed. Rascal just punched his arm and moved a vegetable skewer out of the flames.

"How many have you had?" Coral asked, turning to Giggles: the main factor in keeping her on her feet.

Giggles shifted her weight under Coral so that she could speak to her a little more easily. "I've just had some of Kiki's homemade lemonade."

She looked horrified. Giggles couldn't tell what about though.

"Who the fuck invited her?"

"Hey, be nice," Seacat scolded.

"Don't tell me what to do," Coral snapped back. "You can't blame me for not liking her."

"You can at least try to be civil, sober or not."

"Alright, sure." But her blasé tone and indifferent gaze soon switched to shock, with a mischievous glint in her eye. "Now, what's this about you not drinking yet?"

"I have been drinking, lemonade," Giggles chuckled, holding her plastic cup up to show her.

"You know that's not what I meant."

"I just haven't gone for the alcohol yet; I actually want to remember some of tonight."

Or at least someone...

"I'll remember tonight," Coral protested.

"I never said that you wouldn't," Giggles said, wearing an impish smile of her own.

"Come on," Coral said, taking the lemonade out of her hand and setting it down on the food table next to Seacat before leading her over to the buckets of drinks. Clearly she didn't think she was capable of successfully pouring out a drink from one of the pitchers. Jars of homemade cocktails in a rainbow of colours, marbled with ice cubes and fresh fruit sat idly, awaiting consumption. "You've got to have at least one."

"Now?"

"Why? What's stopping you? Jesus, this guy of yours hasn't got you up the duff already, has he?"

"Coral! No!" Giggles hissed, her eyes even wider than Coral's.

"I didn't know! Here," she said, rummaging around in the bucket. It took her a second or two to find her footing when she stood up again, but she still managed to hand Giggles a jar with a smile. The glass was slick with icy condensation, stinging her finger tips. Peach liquid and fresh raspberries sloshed around beneath the lid. Then a straw was being slotted between her fingers too. "Enjoy," she giggled, grabbing another drink for herself.

"Thanks," Giggles sighed, mustering a smile.

"Ooh, Coral, grab one for me!" Pearl called across the sand, waving at her like she was directing a plane in to land.

"Hey, me too," a boy added, wearing a cocksure smile and an open, hawaiian shirt. Then again, Giggles would probably smile like that if she looked like Bodhi did.

"You coming to dance with us?" Coral asked, expectantly jerking her head towards the teens.

"I'll catch up with you guys in a minute," Giggles said, hoping not to disappoint her any further.

She happily bought it and clumsily ran off to catch up with her other, equally drunk friends, leaving Giggles to slip back over to where Seacat and Rascal were prepping food for everyone.

"Here," Seacat said, handing Giggles her lemonade back. "Ignore her, she won't even realise you've switched drinks. I'm surprised she still knew it was you she was talking to."

"Thanks," she smiled, gladly swapping out her cocktail. "This is smelling amazing guys," she added, relishing the heady smell of chargrilled burgers and caramelised onions. "I didn't know you two were such good chefs."

"We're full of surprises, aren't we, Rascal?" Seacat smirked, nudging his shoulder.

The barbecue sputtered and Rascal frantically tried to move the sausages out of the way before it spat fire up through the grill. He jumped back and mustered a somewhat convincing smile for Giggles. "Sure. We're experts."

"Well you're doing a great job. I still can't believe you two offered to do this though," she said.

"Someone had to," Seacat replied simply. "And besides, we get to save all the best bits for us."

"And me," she added with a playful smile, pushing his arm as he let out a chuckle.

"And you," he agreed. "See, this is a perfect example. Burger too burnt? No problem, just throw it in a bun and give it to Finn."

As he stumbled past, beer in hand and sunglasses askew across his head, Seacat caught his attention and tossed him the burger. Unsurprisingly, he failed to catch it. And as Giggles feared, he picked it up and took a bite anyway, failing to brush off any sand clinging to the bun. "Gnarly! Thanks, dude!"

"Hey, no problem," Seacat laughed, glancing across at Giggles, who didn't know whether to laugh along with him or save Finn from having to barf up the rest of that burger later.

"And it means we can eat whatever we want as soon as it's done," Rascal added, dressing his hot dog with the wide array of condiments spread across the neighbouring food table.

"Hey, stop slacking off" Seacat said, having to move across to Rascal's side of the grill to turn the corn cobs before they burned.

"Fuck off, I'm hungry," Rascal snapped back, smacking Seacat's arm.

Just as Seacat raised his spatula to retaliate, Giggles stretched her arm out to separate them. "Okay, you two. Not in front of an open flame."

"Sorry," Rascal mumbled, stuffing his mouth full of hot dog bun.

"You crabby 'cause you've only had one beer?" Giggles teased.

"No."

"Good, because the last thing I need is another one of my friends acting like they left their brains at home along with their dignity. What's up then? Where's that smile?"

"Nothing's wrong, I'm fine," he said, half-heartedly shuffling a burger along the grill and taking another bite of his hotdog.

"He's just grumpy about Little Miss Shitfaced, over there," Seacat said with a smirk, waving his spatula at Coral, who was downing the rest of the drink she'd just picked up with Giggles, much to the amusement of the other surfers she stood with.

"Why?" Giggles asked. "She's just a little drunk, she'll hit a wall in like an hour and come down again, it's fine. This happens at every party."

"I don't care if she's drunk, she can do whatever she wants," Rascal said.

"Then what's your problem?" Seacat asked. "Come on, I'm not letting you be in this funk all night. Just get it out."

Rascal didn't even look at him.

"Dude, we're your friends, just say it." Seacat pushed.

"She's the problem! She's always the problem," Rascal sputtered in frustration.

"What?"

"She's… She's- ugh! Listen to me, I can't even think when I'm around her!"

"Is this still about you liking her?" Seacat asked.

"It's always been about me liking her!"

"What's wrong with that? You kissed her last week," Giggles started.

"Only because I was dared to," Rascal protested.

"She still went along with it," Seacat said.

"You made her!"

Seacat didn't deny it. "Look, you've kissed her. I thought you wanted that. Why are you still so hung up about it?"

"Because it was shit."

"You didn't look like you thought that last week."

"The kiss wasn't shit, it was the fact that that's how it happened: sat with you guys and a load of empty pizza boxes on Tanner's bedroom floor. What kind of first kiss is that? How am I supposed to go anywhere from there? She'll think it was a joke," he scoffed. "Oh who am I kidding? _I_ was the joke."

"Come on, Rascal. It wasn't that bad," Giggles tried.

"No, it was worse. How the fuck am I supposed to come back from that? It just made everything even worse. I can't even speak to her now."

"Dude, she's our best friend. You're overthinking this way too much. She's only a girl, just go ask her to dance," Seacat said.

"Are you fucking insane?"

"Not nearly as much as you are," Seacat fired back at him.

"I can't 'just ask her to dance'. 'Just' doesn't even come into things. There's nothing 'just' about her."

"Fine, if you don't want to dance then ask her out for lunch or something, I don't know."

"Easy for you to say; she'd say yes to you," Rascal muttered with pained frustration.

Giggles could feel the tension pushing down on her chest as her eyes flitted back and forth between the two boys.

"Dude, we broke up."

"But you still have feelings for her."

"If I had feelings for her then I wouldn't have broken up with her, would I?"

"You wouldn't have slept with her at Reef's house party either."

"We were drunk-"

"And that's a good excuse. Glad we've got the bullshit out of the way. You wanna try telling the truth now?"

"Rascal, I'm trying to help you here."

"Well it's not working. Nothing's working. I've liked her for years. If she can't tell by now then she never will."

"Then move on."

"...I can't."

"I know, which is why we're trying to help you."

"Well you're doing a lousy job," Rascal mumbled with a dejected frown.

"Hey, come on, we're trying our best."

"We know you've liked her for forever, we just need to help you make sure that she knows it," Giggles said, hoping to be a little more constructive.

"And how do I do that?"

"By asking her to dance," Seacat reiterated.

"I'm gonna slap you with this hot dog if you suggest that again."

"Why? She's drunk, what does it matter? She's about five minutes away from trying to dance with that palm tree," Seacat shot back.

"Exactly. I can't ask her out when she's this drunk. What's she going to think tomorrow? 'Did I really dance with Rascal? Oh shit, that must have been one too many vodkas'."

"Why are you so hard on yourself, dude?"

"Because I'm way out of her league."

"Hey, not true," Giggles jumped in. "You're a great guy. You're sweet, you're funny, you're talented-"

"Alright, Giggles, don't let your new boyfriend hear you say that," Seacat chuckled. But Giggles didn't care; she could already see hope start to shift Rascal's face into a new expression.

"You'll get there, I know you will. Maybe not tonight, but one day I'm going to see you two dancing the night away in each other's arms and I'm going to give you the stupidest smile as I say 'I told you so'," Giggles said. Rascal didn't really know what to say in response, but Giggles could tell from his smile just how grateful he was.

"Okay, new rule, you go to Giggles if you ever need a pep talk," Seacat chuckled. "You're _way_ better at it than I am."

"I just don't like seeing two of my favourite boys in bad moods," she grinned, playfully punching them both on the arm.

"Again, don't let your new boyfriend hear you saying that," Seacat laughed.

"Is he coming tonight?" Rascal asked her, finally deciding to polish off the rest of his hot dog.

"Not that I know of," Giggles sighed. It wasn't technically a lie. She never had gotten a definite answer.

"Aww come on, why not?" Seacat asked.

"I don't know, maybe he's busy."

"You didn't even ask him what he was doing?"

"No, I just told him about the party and told him that he could drop by if he wanted to."

"So what I'm hearing is there's a chance that he still could be coming?"

"Don't get your hopes up," Giggles warned.

"I'm not hearing a no, are you, dude?" he asked, turning to Rascal, who shook his head.

"Sounds like we'd better cook him a burger, just in case," he said, laying a fresh patty onto the grill.

* * *

The sun sunk in the sky, skimming the horizon with gold and lilac. The band of surfers, had properly started their set now, instead of just playing the radio through their speakers, so everyone was dancing around like the drunken fools they were. With all the food cooked, Seacat and Rascal, now on much better terms after having shared a few beers, had joined the rest of their friends in the festivities. Admittedly a little tipsy after a couple of fruity cocktails she didn't even want to know the contents of, Giggles batted the beach ball that was flying towards her back into the air. Apparently just dancing along to the band wasn't enough; someone had decided that playing a makeshift volleyball game in the middle of their set would be a good idea. Once the beach ball was out though, the other inflatable beach toys were brought to life too. Coral and Pearl were singing along to the band into an oversized microphone, Shelley was still trying to inflate a candy-striped pool ring and Finn was passed out on the back of a turtle.

"Giggles!"

It was Tanner, wearing a megawatt smile and a lei of blue flowers that she was sure he hadn't arrived with.

"Hey," she giggled as he threw his arms around her. Sometimes she couldn't believe just how similar him and his sister were.

"Isn't this just the best? Summer's the best, isn't it? Isn't summer the best?"

"It sure is," she laughed, not even caring about the beer that had sloshed out of the bottle in his hand and run down her back. "You having a good time?"

"The _best_!" he exclaimed as if he could hardly comprehend it himself. Part of her didn't believe that his alcohol-clouded brain was capable. "I just wish Lela was-" he began, his expression slipping from unfathomable elation to defeat. But before the smile could fully slide off his face, the purring chorus of motorcycle engines tugged their attention towards the car park of Big Momma's up the beach. "She's here!" he cried, grabbing Giggles' forearms and shaking her until he was just a blur of tanned skin and blindingly white teeth.

She smiled back in disbelief and watched him run (well, stumble) up to greet Lela, who was already running down the sand towards him. They had only embraced for a second though before her eyes were drawn away. Slicked hair, battered black boots and a lazily brash smile. She may have actually swooned, but she was simply too drunk to notice or care. Thank god no one was watching her.

He caught her eye for a second and his smile twitched into a grin. She could have thrown herself at him right then and there if the sensible side of her brain didn't catch her. Well, the band making an announcement over the microphone played a significant part as well.

"Woah, watch out, cats! Someone call the exterminator 'cause it looks like we've got ourselves a rat infestation!" Reef hollered. His bandmate Fletcher gave the new arrivals a drum-roll as they wandered over to the hoard of drunkenly dancing teens.

Any excitement or intrigue that the bikers could possibly have been harbouring drained from their faces in a matter of seconds. Scowling, they ground to a halt, immediately on the defensive again.

"Come on, own up, which of you cats dragged these dudes in?" Taj, another of the band members asked the crowd with a chuckle.

"Yeah, and how do we get 'em out again?" Reef added with a smirk. A ripple of laughter through the crowd only soured the bikers' mood.

"Tanner did!" Seacat hollered up to the stage.

"Oh shit, yeah, I forgot about that," Reef laughed to himself. Maybe that ridiculous mop of blonde hair interfered with his brain waves. "Sorry Tanner."

"You're good," Tanner called back to him, only breaking his hug with Lela to reply.

"Okay, never mind, guys. Carry on," Reef said, signalling to his bandmates to ready themselves with their instruments again.

Whilst the surfers could simply let go and dance across the sand as if nothing had happened, the bikers didn't appear to be so forgiving. The back of Giggles' neck prickled with the tension hanging in the air and she couldn't seem to catch Butchy's eye anymore. But the alcohol swirling around in her stomach made it very difficult for her to actually be concerned. Watching them grumpily scan the crowd almost made her want to laugh.

"Tanner, you want another-?" But Seacat cut himself off when he spotted Tanner with his arms wrapped around Lela's waist. You'd have thought he was trying to get her drunk from second-hand exposure from the way they were making out. Lela looked a little taken aback, but she definitely wasn't complaining. "Nevermind," Seacat said, knowing better than to interrupt. Seeking out Tanner did, however, bring him and an even more drunk Rascal, who had blindly followed him, face to face with a hoard of disgruntled Rodents.

Not all the usual Big Momma's residents had bothered to show up, but there were still a considerable number of them there, decked out in leather, extortionate amounts of hairspray and bare-faced irritation. Giggles recognised a couple of them, the ones that always seemed to be at the forefront of the crew: Struts with her fuschia stilettos sinking into the sand, Lugnut with his arm draped possessively over Struts' shoulders, CheeChee with her ever-towering beehive and Butchy...with everything just as it should be. Except for the clenched jaw that set his mouth into a frown.

"Hey guys," Seacat said, attempting a cheerful wave. His face and deadpan tone gave away his true feelings though. "Nice of you to join us."

Their expressions didn't crack.

"Why the long faces?" Rascal asked.

"Yeah, what happened? Did someone shit on your bike seat?" Seacat added with a snicker.

"Gee, ya really know how to make a girl feel welcome, don't ya?" CheeChee asked with venomous sarcasm.

"What?" Rascal asked, looking as if she'd just spoke to him in a different language. The alcohol clearly hadn't been treating him well.

"Ya made us feel real welcome," CheeChee repeated.

"What?"

"Ya made us feel-!" she tried again, raising her voice further. But she was cut off by Seacat bursting out laughing. "Forget it," she snapped, rolling her eyes and angrily crossing her arms across her chest. She stared daggers at Seacat but he just grinned back to her, totally unphased.

"What's your problem?" Struts asked, staring at the two surfer boys in what could only be described as disgust.

Seacat shrugged his shoulders and offered her an irritatingly relaxed grin. "Beats me. You're the hodads around here."

"The whats?" Struts asked.

"Dude, she doesn't know what a hodad is," Rascal said, before the pair burst out laughing again.

"Yes I do," Struts began indignantly.

"Shut up, Struts. No you don't," CheeChee snapped, glaring at the boys.

"Come on, let's just get out of here," Lugnut said, glancing across at Butchy, hoping he was thinking the same thing.

He didn't seem to be as annoyed as the rest of his crew, but he was hardly enjoying himself. Before he could reply though, Lela ran up behind Lugnut, lipstick smeared across her cheek, saying, "What? But you guys just got here."

"Yeah, you just got here, you haven't even tried to have a good time yet," Seacat agreed.

"Well ya haven't exactly made it easy for us," CheeChee spat.

"I don't think you guys ever find it easy," Rascal said flatly, earning himself an approving high five from a very amused Seacat.

"Come on, just stay for a little bit, please," Lela said. "It's a party. How bad can it be?"

None of the bikers looked like they were going to reply until, "Alright, we can stay." He glanced across at Giggles, who already had her eyes trained on him. She felt herself smiling, and then felt a pair of eyes follow Butchy's gaze. Struts locked onto Giggles like she was a homing beacon. Her eyebrows furrowed and Giggles could hear the cogs spinning in her brain. But by the time that Struts turned back at Butchy to check that's who he had been looking at, he was talking to Lela.

"What are we supposed to do? We ain't surfers," CheeChee said, scrunching up her nose.

"You don't need to be a surfer to have fun," Seacat said.

"But it does help," Rascal added with a lop-sided smirk.

"This is fun?" CheeChee asked, scanning the beach wearily. "You're all goofing off."

"Exactly. You should try it, you might actually like having fun for once," Seacat said with a devilish grin.

Clearly not hearing the sarcasm, Tanner brightly added, "Yeah, grab a drink, have some fun. There might even be some food left over there actually."

"I'll pass, thanks," CheeChee said with a withering, false smile.

"Dudes, what are you doing? I thought we-" But Coral stopped in her tracks when she spotted who had been holding her friends up. "Oh, hi. You guys look...nice?"

"Thanks!"

"Shut up, Struts," CheeChee snapped, thinking it was far from a compliment.

"What are you guys doing just standing around?" Coral continued, completely unphased by the bickering biker girls. Giggles wasn't even sure if she knew they'd replied at all.

"Yeah, are you going to join in or what?" Seacat added.

"We're staying," Lela said before anyone else could object. "What drinks are you guys having?"

"I think this is your speciality," Seacat said, grinning across at Coral, who took that as her cue to dart back through the crowd. Giggles watched him as he watched her go, studying the way he looked at her. His usual fond smirk was now dopey, drunken infatuation. A smirk tugged at her lips. Drunk Seacat wasn't as careful at hiding his feelings as he was when sober.

"Come on, Giggles, I'm gonna need some help with these," Coral said as she stumbled back through the crowd with an armful of bottles.

Together, the two girls spread the drinks amongst the bikers. Handing bottle after bottle to teens who looked like they'd rather be anywhere else right now. Without even looking she passed one of the last bottles to her left, only for her hand to get stuck when trying to pull it away. Blearily she turned her head, curious as to what the hold up was for. Brown eyes and a knowing smirk held her gaze as their hands both gripped the beer bottle between them. It had been sitting in a bucket of ice but somehow her hand still felt like it was melting.

"Thanks," he eventually said.

"...Mhm," was all she could manage to reply with. A giddy smile washed over her face as she looked at him and in that moment she lost the ability to do anything else.

"There's more over there," Coral said to the group, waving her hand in the vague direction of the drinks table. "You'd better hurry up though," she added with a hiccup. "'Cause you've got a lot of catching up to do."

"That won't be hard for you, CheeChee," Struts giggled.

"Shut up, Struts," CheeChee barked again, glaring at her.

"Hey, pipe down," Lugnut shot back at her, pulling Struts closer to him.

"Woah, woah, woah, cool it with the cat fights," Seacat stepped in.

"Seacat's right, that's not what tonight's about. It's a party, guys. There's a table of drinks, a bunch of food, a live band, extra company," Lela said, cosying up to Tanner with a smile. "...What more do you guys want?"

CheeChee rolled her eyes and Lugnut sighed but Struts appeared to agree judging by the way her frown softened.

"A bottle opener would be nice," Butchy quipped.

"They're over there," Coral said, again just waving her hand behind her with a brainless giggle.

Knowing he wouldn't get a more definitive answer, Butchy started to head towards the crowd of surfers and the supposed drinks table that would hopefully house a bottle opener or two. A couple of bikers followed him, a couple stayed looking lost on the sand. Giggles just found herself smiling down at the cup she was playing with. Struts might have tried to make eye contact with her but she couldn't focus on her long enough to be sure. The music thudded through the sand and her skull. Fletcher's drum beats were putting up a good fight against the pounding of blood in her ears. The fairy lights strung between the trees looked hazy, like bokeh in a photograph. Her stomach churned and her head spun, but still she smiled and downed the rest of her drink just in time for the band to strike up another song.

Just a few notes had been played when Coral grabbed her shoulders with such enthusiasm that the plastic cup was thrown clean out of Giggles' hands. "What?" she stuttered in surprise.

"I've been waiting for this song all night!" Coral cried, dragging her back towards the crowd of surfers, picking up Seacat, who then picked up Rascal, on the way.

All of her friends seemed to equally as excited because a collective, cacophonous cheer rose from the group as the band strummed the first bars of the melody.

"What's going on?"

Giggles turned to see Tanner dragging a perplexed, but chuckling, Lela towards them.

"Reef's band's playing!" Tanner somewhat answered. Despite his enthusiasm, Lela didn't look any more certain of the sudden burst of enthusiasm.

"It's one of everyone's favourite songs," Rascal explained after he spotted her still looking confused. "They wrote it about parties like this _for_ parties like this."

"Oh, neat!" Lela grinned. But it was clear she still felt like she'd been placed right in the centre of a kindergarten classroom just as recess had been announced.

"Okay guys," Reef began with a smirk, stepping up to the microphone as his band kept playing behind him. "I know you've been waiting for this one. You know the words, the night's still young, let's make the most of it!"

Reef was right, all the surfers did know the words and were more than happy to show that. Giggles could barely hear Reef and his bandmates above the drunken singing of her friends around her.

Tanner was the first to fully commit though, grabbing Lela's hands and pulling her towards him with an infatuated grin.

 **Tanner:** Hey girl I'm waiting on ya, I'm waiting on ya

Come on and let me sneak you out"

"Out where? We're already outside," Lela giggled.

 **Tanner:** "And have a celebration, a celebration

The music up, the windows down"

"What windows, you goof?" she continued, still giggling away as he just grinned back at her and buried his face in her neck, which he proceeded to line with kisses.

Since Tanner was too preoccupied to continue, Seacat was the next one to catch Giggles' attention as he sang along. Ruffling Rascal's hair and wearing a cocky grin as he danced.

 **Seacat:** "Yeah, we'll be doing what we do

Just pretending that we're cool and we know it too

Yeah, we'll keep doing what we do

Just pretending that we're cool, so tonight-"

Then as the chorus kicked in, all the surfers started jumping around like the drunken maniacs they were. Lela couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. The inflatable pool toys were thrown up in the air. Giggles was playfully batted around the head with the inflatable microphone by Pearl. Bodhi dove onto the turtle that was housing a sleeping Finn, who was consequently jolted awakee and propelled onto the sand. Seacat, Coral and Rascal were all stupidly dancing with each other, competing to see who could make the others laugh more. The beach was so alive with music and laughter that it felt like the sand itself was dancing along with them, kicking up around their legs and spraying out from the group at all angles.

 **Surfers:** "Let's go crazy, crazy, crazy 'til we see the sun

I know we only met but let's pretend it's love

And never, never, never stop for anyone

Tonight let's get some and live while we're young

Tonight let's get some"

 **Tanner:** "And live while we're young"

The perplexed bikers just looked on from the sidelines, unsure of what to make of all the unruly behaviour. Sure they weren't exactly responsible, but the utter lack of reservation was so alien that they didn't really know what to do. After apparently locating the bottle openers, a handful of the Rodents were stalking back towards the surfers, circling them like predators, but definitely not looking like they were going to join in on the festivities any time soon. Seacat caught Giggles watching them and gave her a knowing nod. Even in her tipsy state Giggles knew he had no idea what she was actually thinking, but she went along with his plan anyway and followed him as he jogged over to the bikers. He stopped in front of CheeChee, who was still sporting the biggest frown of the bunch and turned on a charmingly cheeky smile.

"What do you want?" she barked as he approached.

"Come on, I know you love being a bitch or whatever, but you can't just stand there sucking all the fun out of everything," he said. "Take off that leather jacket and let your hair down! What are you waiting for? A red carpet? Complimentary champagne?"

"I'm good, thanks," she snapped.

"Come on, it doesn't look that bad, does it?" Giggles asked, plucking up the courage to jump in on the conversation. She glanced over her shoulder at all her friends dancing and Reef bouncing a beach ball off Tanner's head from the stage and couldn't help but laugh. Upon turning back to the bikers, she saw a couple of them had smiles twitching at their lips as well as they watched the chaos behind her. She also saw a smile from someone watching her and had to bite her lip to stop her whole face melting into a giddy, giggling mess.

"Yeah, believe it or not, we're having a good time. What's stopping you?" Seacat asked.

"You," CheeChee said bluntly.

"Well you should have said so," Seacat grinned mischievously, throwing his head back and launching into the next verse. His ridiculous dance moves didn't let up, if anything he just amped them up and directed them towards and even more frustrated CheeChee. But the other bikers actually seemed to be loosening up and enjoying the stupidity, even if it was at the expense of their friend. Then again, maybe that's why they enjoyed it so much.

 **Seacat:** "Hey girl it's now or never, it's now or never

Don't overthink just let it go

And if we get together, yeah, get together

Don't tell that secret to a soul"

"In your dreams," CheeChee scoffed, rolling her eyes at him in disgust.

"Nightmares, actually, but I'll give you the point anyway," Seacat retaliated. "And I know it probably pains you to hear this, but that wasn't for you," he added. And since he'd coaxed the bikers into the midst of the frolicking surfers again, he had the perfect opportunity to grab Coral, who now had Fletcher's baseball cap wedged on top of her wild curls, away from Rascal and spin her into his arms. Seacat was going to kick himself tomorrow when Giggles reminded him of this, but in that moment, with a cocktail of beers messing with his conscience, Coral was a very pretty girl he knew very well and still obviously did have feelings for, even if he couldn't admit it whilst sober. She grinned at him, surprised but welcome to it by the looks of things. He reached up to take the cap off her head, but tried to grab for the brim that had incidentally been twisted around to the back of her head so that a few curls were trying to escape from the little hole above her forehead. She tipsily giggled and he just took his hat off to place on top of the cap instead. Even from just watching the way that they acted around one another anyone could tell that they worked together, everything they did felt natural, like a well-rehearsed scene. Being with one another was practically second nature, which is why Giggles presumed that they always ended up back at each other's side. The familiarity was too tempting. But from the way that he held her and the way that she smiled at him, Giggles was finding it harder and harder to think of a reason why they had 'broken up'.

Surprisingly unphased by seeing Seacat and Coral together again, Rascal was helping a dazed Finn to his feet with Shelley. There was the possibility that he just hadn't seen them as well, but as long as he was still smiling Giggles didn't really mind. As she drifted away from Seacat and Coral to give them some space though, she was quick to be signalled over to join the trio as they danced along to the rest of the song. Shelley danced with the inflatable turtle, Rascal and Giggles jumped around until their feet were raw and Finn just did his best to stay on two feet.

 **Rascal:** "Yeah, we'll be doing what we do

Just pretending that we're cool, so tonight"

 **Surfers:** "Let's go crazy, crazy, crazy 'til we see the sun

I know we only met but let's pretend it's love

And never, never, never stop for anyone

Tonight let's get some and live while we're young

Tonight let's get some and live while we're young"

Tanner and Lela had stumbled their way back through the crowd of surfers to where Giggles was stood with her friends, dragging a few of the bikers with them. Some were now donning flowered leis, much like Tanner's, which he still had draped around his neck. Some were cradling various inflatable pool toys that were still drifting around. And some had even managed to crack some smiles along with cracking the tops off their beers. Tanner cradled Lela in a drunken embrace and, with his forehead pressed to hers, managed to compose himself enough to keep singing.

 **Tanner:** "And girl, you and I

We're about to make some memories tonight"

Giggles took a moment to watch them fondly, but when she turned back to her friends she found that they'd disappeared into the sea of board shorts and bikini tops. Glancing back at Lela and Tanner, she locked onto brown eyes and immediately felt herself weaken at the knees again. Her face melted into a giddy grin before she could stop herself and to her relief, over the top of his beer bottle, he dared a smile back.

All too quickly though, his expression soured and Giggles didn't think that it was because of the beer. Her brow tried to furrow but before it could, a pair of tanned arms looped around her waist. Too shocked (and drunk) to realise what was going on, Giggles just went rigid. But as Reef's smiling face appeared beside hers and his arms caressed her torso she felt herself turning redder by the second. A terribly awkward, breathy laugh escaped her lips, but Reef barely noticed as he turned to grab the microphone stand he'd dragged through the crowd with him. She looked up at the stage to find it empty save for Fletcher and his drum kit, who couldn't roam into the crowd like his other band mates could. Her eyes fell on the electrical cords that were hooking their equipment up to the speakers and were now snaking throughout the hoard of teens. Most of the band had tried to stay pretty close to the stage, but Reef hadn't followed that rule; she could see parts of his microphone lead twisting from one side of the party to the other. Still, by the time she'd traced it back to him, she had yet to understand what he was doing standing here singing to her. Messy blonde hair, dimples like craters and a mole by his eye that shrunk away when he smiled: Giggles could definitely see why Pearl liked him. But she couldn't see a reason why he was showing such an interest in her.

 **Reef:** "I wanna live while we're young

We wanna live while we're young"

He leaned his face towards hers and for a horrifying moment Giggles thought that he was about to kiss her. Instead he winked and whispered "Duck."

"What?" she stammered. She wouldn't be surprised if she'd misheard him; everything was starting to feel like a blur.

But she didn't get much of a response. Reef grabbed the microphone and bellowed, "Let's go!" And before she could ask him to elaborate, he grabbed her by the forearms and pulled her down into a crouch as a rainbow of water balloons soared above their heads. Gazing at them as if she was seven years old again and watching fairies take flight, she followed their trajectory right back to the brown eyes and his friends.

The bikers shrieked as they rained down on them, ducking as best as they could to save their lacquered hair and leather outfits. A blue one knocked Lugnut's drink down his front. An orange one nestled in CheeChee's monstrous beehive, which apparently cushioned its fall. But perhaps the most disastrous was the particularly over-filled green one that hit Struts square in the face, drenching her in cold water with a shrill scream. Her mascara puddled around her eyes and her clothes clung to her skin in terror of what she'd do next. But the culprits showed no remorse. Seacat, Coral, Rascal, Tanner, Shelley, Pearl and Finn all stood gleefully laughing at the soaked bikers, some even grabbing more water balloons from the bucket they had acquired. Lela stood in Tanner's arms, not knowing whether to start laughing herself or run to her friends. Giggles felt equally as stunned. Her eyes kept flitting between the two groups, frantically darting from her friends and the brown eyes until she thought of something to do.

Butchy had managed to dodge the water balloons, but with Struts seconds away from a meltdown Giggles assumed he must still be pretty mad. Did her friends have a death wish? Why did they keep messing with the bikers so much? But if she actually put this into perspective then all her friends were doing were treating the bikers like they were any other surfer like them; hardly a party had passed without a water fight of some sort breaking out if the surfers were there. And to her surprise, as she dared a glance back at Butchy she saw the faintest lingerings of an amused smile tugging at his lips.

Struts wiped the water from her face and set a scowl in its place. Lugnut tried to grab her hand but she was already marching towards the surfers with startling menace. Before she could get close though Seacat launched another water balloon in her direction. She flinched away from it, but Lugnut, who was hot on her heels, caught it, realising that it hadn't been launched as an offense at all. Puzzled he looked from the yellow balloon to the surfers, Struts soon following suit when she realised that she hadn't been soaked again. The surfers just grinned in response and held their hands up in what was either a giggling surrender, or a way to make themselves more obvious targets for the bikers. Struts still didn't seem to understand the gesture and furrowed her brow at Lugnut, but he was already grinning and taking aim, ultimately hitting Finn square in the chest. He yelped as the water ran down into his board shorts, shocking some sobriety back into him as his friends fell about laughing and cheering Lugnut for his efforts. Coral pushed the bucket of water balloons towards the bikers with a mischievous smile before running to take cover with the rest of her friends, who all split as soon as Struts reached for one to take her revenge. Before Giggles knew it, bikers and surfers alike were diving for water balloons, laughing and shrieking as they soaked one another. Coral, Seacat and Rascal ran for water guns, tossing them to anyone who passed. Lela got one and playfully squirted Tanner, Lugnut gladly armed himself with one to protect Struts' honour and even CheeChee seemed grateful of the weapon when it meant she could open fire on Seacat, who ran like a madman into the crowd to grab one of his own and escape her frenzied giggles. Rascal threw one to Giggles, who turned to fire it at Reef. She thought he was still stood beside her but he, probably in an effort to save the electrical equipment, had made a break for the stage. So instead she found herself face to face with those brown eyes all over again, as well as a now drenched grey t-shirt. His stunned expression soon melted into a grin though, seemingly amused by her own surprise, which only doubled when he grabbed a water balloon of his own to retaliate with. Their shrieks and giggles intermingled with everyone else's, the spark between them lost in the roaring campfire of laughter around them as the song came to an end.

 **Surfers and Bikers:** "Let's go crazy, crazy, crazy 'til we see the sun

I know we only met but let's pretend it's love

And never, never, never stop for anyone

Tonight let's get some and live while we're young"

* * *

The sky grew darker and darker as the night pressed on. The surfers toned down their antics as the band turned down their speakers and to Lela's delight it seemed that for the most part everyone was getting along. Or at least they were staying out of each other's way enough to stay civil. Giggles hadn't witnessed any arguments so far, so that felt like somewhat of a success. The only one that she could sense brewing was between Rascal and Finn, who were having a heated conversation about a new movie playing at the cinema in town. Half-listening to them bicker left the rest of her attention available to catch snippets of Pearl and Shelley's drunken gossip session. Pearl kept pining for Reef, who still had yet to make a move on her, and Shelley wouldn't stop moaning about her lack of a significant other. So bitterly glancing across at who she deemed the 'tonsil tennis team', was a frequent hobby of hers. Lela and Tanner, as well as Struts and Lugnut, were the only remaining contestants after Seacat and Coral's sloppy makeout session against a nearby palm tree seemed to have been relocated. Judging by Shelley's apparent disgust, they'd been in the lead for most vomit-worthy. Her interest in her friends' discussions had never been lower, so when a certain someone in a grey t-shirt caught her eye across the sand she felt her heart leap into her throat.

He was stood by himself, hands dug into the pockets of his jeans as he slouched against a tree. Something told her that he was just as bored as she was. A nod of his head towards a shadowy thicket of foliage confirmed her suspicions but she couldn't believe he was being so forward in such a public space. Sure, everyone else was too preoccupied to notice the tiny exchange, but it still felt a little scandalous to even be making prolonged eye contact with so many people around them. He raised an eyebrow, obviously sensing her apprehension, before smirking, quickly glancing around to make sure no one else was watching amd disappearing down the path between the tropical plants, leaving her with nothing but a wink.

No one had asked for her opinion for what felt like hours but could only have been around fifteen minutes. Still, that meant she had less reason than ever to stick around with her tipsy friends and the lack of attention would make for a relatively easy getaway. So, making sure that they were all engrossed in their respective conversations, Giggles grabbed what was left of her drink and slipped away from her friends before any of them could notice that she was gone. Hiding in the sanctuary of the shadows cast by the campfires, she kept out of sight of prying eyes until she reached the same thicket of plants and pushed her way through the leaves that protruded onto the path.

"Boo!"

"Shi- You almost gave me a heart attack!" she exclaimed, pushing Butchy away with a scowl as laughter spilled from his mouth.

"Sorry, couldn't help myself," he chuckled as she fought the smile that kept springing to her lips at the sight of him.

"I'm nervous enough as it is sneaking around in front of everyone, don't make it worse."

"Hey, it's done now. What else is there to worry about?"

"Someone finding us."

"Fine, so we'll head further down the beach. You happy now?"

Giggles just sighed and rolled her eyes. She grabbed his arm and marched further down the path, pushing palm leaves out of their way as they went.

"Do you even know where you're going?"

"Away from here."

"Come on, let me lead," Butchy said, stepping up in front of her. "We can go back to that quiet stretch of the beach. It's not far from here."

"But what-"

"No. Before you say anything, no, no one's going to find us there. Most people back there can barely make it to their cars, so don't start freaking out on me. 'Kay?"

"Okay," she sighed, but that could only settle her so much. Instead of dwelling on the thought of getting caught any longer, she tried changing the topic. "So… Did you have fun tonight?"

"Me? Having fun with a bunch of surfers? Not a chance, doll face," he smirked.

"Come on, be serious," she said, knowing immediately he was just teasing her.

"It was...different, that's for sure."

"Different to what?"

"Hanging out with the Rodents."

"They were still there."

"Yeah but it's not the same. I don't think it's ever going to be."

"Why not?"

"You don't have to be so defensive, it's not a bad thing. We're just different, we have different ideas of what's fun."

"Different _is_ fun," Giggles retaliated.

"I never said it wasn't," Butchy shot back. "All I said was that a trip to the dirt track was different to a water balloon fight. That doesn't mean the water balloon fight isn't fun."

"Well was the water balloon fight a nice change from going to the stinky dirt track?"

"...It was pretty entertaining, I'll give you guys that," he chuckled.

"Good, because waiting for you to react was scary."

"Oh come on, I'm not that scary."

"Not you, necessarily. But I didn't think you and your friends were in the best mood as it was, so throwing you into the middle of a water fight didn't feel like a very smart move."

"Probably not, but I was amused. And it was fun seeing Struts scream about something other than breaking a nail."

"You're not mad then? Not even a little bit?" Giggles asked with a dubious smile.

"Between us, not at all. But in front of your friends, so they still feel a little threatened, I'm pretty mad," he said, a smirk curling at his lips.

"Why?"

"Soaking my crew like that? Making a fool of us? Not allowed on my watch."

"No, I mean why do you want them to still feel threatened by you?"

"To keep them in their place, you know? Just 'cause Lela and Tanner are dating doesn't mean I have to go all soft on them. Sure it was fun for one night but I'm not letting that slide again."

"Well what about us?"

"What do you mean? What about us?" he asked, stopping to turn and face her. His face was dappled with moonlight that spilled through the foliage.

Giggles swallowed and attempted to gather the right words, finding it harder to speak with his eyes trained on her. But when she actually managed to open her mouth laughter broke through the air and the pair froze in the darkness. Their eyes widened. Their minds raced. Their hands fell to their sides.

"What do we do?" she mouthed to him.

Butchy frowned as he tried to think, but impatience got the better of him and instead he looked past her, trying to scan the area. He was only met with darkness though, and he couldn't hear any footsteps following them. His frown deepened until the clunking of metal made them both jump again.

This time more curious than anything, Giggles took a step towards the noise and pulled back the leaves obscuring their view. She was met with a row of her friends' cars, lined up along the sand in the overflow car park. One particular car seemed to be both the source of the laughter and the clunking. Butchy's arm brushed hers as he peered through the foliage beside her at Seacat's car, rocking on its suspension as lustful laughter drifted from the metal body. Giggles had to pick her jaw off the floor.

"You know who's in there?" Butchy snorted.

"...Yeah, I've got a hunch," she said with a sigh. It still amazed her how far Seacat could fall after a few drinks. First Reef's house, now this? But as she thought, her eyes drifted to meet Butchy's gaze and a giggle slipped from her mouth before she could stop it.

"Point proven: you surfers are wild," he laughed.

"Well, that just makes us all the more interesting, doesn't it?" she said with a devilish grin.

"No comment," he retaliated. But he took her hand in his again anyway. "Come on, let's get out of here before they have to break for air."

"Are you kidding? We're surfers, we swim for fun. We've got no trouble holding our breath," she smirked.

A laugh escaped his lips before he could stop it and had to catch himself so that they wouldn't be discovered. Shaking his head at her antics, Butchy took the lead again and they carried on their trek down the overgrown path, away from the blaring music of the party.

* * *

"So, end of summer party, huh?" Butchy said, breaking the silence that had fallen over them after they'd arrived at their destination and their mindless chatter had dwindled out. Sprawled out on the sand, he gazed up at the sky, eyes drifting from star to star.

"Yeah, it's sort of a tradition, I guess. I don't know how you guys didn't know about it, we don't exactly keep it a secret; we're too loud for secrets anyway," Giggles said with a soft laugh.

"Hey, you said it, not me," Butchy said, sharing her laughter.

More silence.

Giggles sat on the sand beside him, drawing patterns in the sand only to scatter the grains moments later. A breeze off the shore blew her hair across her face. Sighing, she glanced down at him and shuffled to lay next to him. Shyly she smiled at him, but something pulled her away and suddenly they were both staring up at the sky again. She thought about reaching out for his hand but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead she found herself speaking without even thinking, "I can't believe summer's over."

"Well, all good things have to come to an end," Butchy sighed. "I wouldn't worry too much though; it'll be back again next year," he added with a teasing grin.

"I know, I know, but it won't be the same."

"Why not?"

"I'll have finished school. Summer won't be for hanging out with friends and hitting the surf every day anymore. It'll just be another season, but with a little more sunshine. We'll have to get jobs and support ourselves, we can't afford to just goof off all the time."

"You make working sound like it's the end of the world," Butchy chuckled. "It's not that bad, you know. For one you don't have any homework, not that I did a great deal of that anyway, but still."

"It just feels like this safety blanket I've always had is going to be taken away. I know it's weird but I like school, I like how reliable it is. I know that come Monday I'll get up and have classes to go to, and I know I'll see all my friends because we all have to be there. When school ends that's not going to be the case. Who knows what jobs we're going to get? If we have bad shifts we could go days without seeing each other. And Coral's trying out for scholarships for theatre schools that are hours away from here. I talk to her every day. What if she gets a place and then moves away for good? All I keep thinking is that I've got one more year of this life left before it gets flipped upside down."

"Change doesn't have to be a bad thing, you know."

"Tell that to the sinking feeling in my stomach right now," she scoffed sadly.

"The world turns, G. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, that's one of the few certainties we have in life. Change is inevitable and...hard to deal with sometimes, but it's just something we have to learn to accept. Next summer will come and go just like this year's did. And whatever it brings, you've gotta roll with it. Time doesn't stop...no matter how much you want it to."

"I know…" she sighed and bit her lip. There was something else about summer ending that was gnawing away at her guilt.

"What is it?" he could sense there was something more she wasn't telling him.

"Hm?" she asked, trying to be nonchalant.

"What aren't you saying? There's something else bugging you, I can tell."

"No, I'm fine. I've unloaded enough already. I'm sorry, I didn't want tonight to turn into this, we were supposed to have fun-"

"Don't apologise for feeling like you can talk to me; not many people can tell me stuff like that. Just get it all off your chest, that's what this part of the beach is for. I said this is where I get my best thinking done, didn't I?"

"It's nothing, really."

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad. Is it some big secret? Or girl stuff?" he asked, trying to make light of the situation.

"No."

"Then what's bothering you?"

"I just… Now that summer's over, I don't know what that means for us." Giggles couldn't bring herself to look at him. She couldn't even believe she'd admitted that to him.

He was silent for a few seconds. But a heavy sigh broke the tension. "Why did I have a feeling that was coming?"

"You did?"

"Kind of. You just haven't been yourself tonight, not when I've been around anyway."

"I'm sorry."

"What are you apologising for?"

"I don't know, nothing. I just feel bad and it sucks, and I wish it didn't have to be like this-"

"But."

"Huh?" she mumbled, finally daring a glance at him.

He was scowling up at the sky. "I knew there was going to be a 'but', thought I'd save you the trouble."

"Look, we don't have to talk about this-"

"No just get it over with now. We've already started it-"

"Joey-"

"-so we're finishing it. It'll just come up again anyway. When there's a 'but' it always does."

He looked wounded, but too full of bravado to show any pain. She could already tell that the barriers she'd been working on bringing down were rising up again. He felt as closed off as he did that first day in the bakery.

"I don't want to hurt you," she started. "It hurts enough just thinking about it."

"Don't worry about me, I'm an adult, I can handle myself," he said coldly. "It's just like ripping off a band aid."

"I've never been very good at that," she confessed with a pained chuckle. Her eyes darted to him but his expression didn't shift.

"You want me to do it then? You want me to break things off?"

"Don't say it like that," she almost begged, feeling her words catch in her throat.

"Well how do you want me to say it? No amount of sugar coating makes this stuff easier."

She couldn't bear to lie down any longer. But as she sat up and turned to him, he didn't move, his face still set in a frown. "Look I don't want this. You know how much I've loved the time we've spent together-"

"But."

"Stop doing that!" she snapped.

"Force of habit, what can I say?"

"I don't want to stop seeing you, okay? But we barely find time as it is and when we do we have to sneak around under everyone's noses. It sucks! With school starting up again I'll have homework, cheer practice, art club, and there's my friends-"

"What, so you'll make time for them but not for me?"

"I never said that!"

"Yeah well you sure as hell implied it."

"You're no better. You wouldn't give up hanging out with your friends for me."

"I did, actually: the other night when we went to Giovanni's."

"So did I! We'd been talking about that party for weeks but I ditched to go and see you," she bit back.

"Yeah well I had to give up most of my paycheck that week too so I hope it was worth it."

"Hey, that was your choice. I never told you to take me there and I was extremely grateful you did, so don't try to twist that back on me. All I'm saying is that we shouldn't have to sacrifice things that we love so that we can see each other. And if that's the only way that we can then I don't think it's going to work, not long term anyway. Don't you think it'd be better to cut things off now, before we get too attached?"

"I don't know, I feel pretty attached."

"Joey, you have a job. You work and earn a living for yourself. I'm still in high school. Yeah you've only just graduated but we're still in different phases of our lives. You don't want to be tied down to a high schooler, you could do so much better than me."

"Don't say that," he said. He was still frowning, but there was sympathy in his eyes as he finally turned his head to look at her.

"I wish things were different," she said quietly, feeling tears sting her eyes.

"You're in charge of your life, G. You can change them, if you want."

"It's minds I need to change, and I don't think I can do that," she sighed.

"We can try. They'll come around eventually, I'll talk to them-"

"No. It's like you said: we're different. It's not a bad thing, but we can't change it. And no matter how much I want it to work...I don't think it will." The first tear fell before she could choke it back and by the time the second one tumbled down her cheek it fell onto Butchy's shoulder as he wrapped her into a hug. "I'm really sorry," she cried into his t-shirt.

"Don't be, it's not your fault. We were both thinking wishfully when we thought we could work something out from this," he comforted.

"I don't want to lose you like this."

"You're not losing me, I'm not going anywhere. I think I'm stuck in this town for good."

"I'll still miss you though. Seeing you in Big Momma's is going to be torture."

"Well look, I agree that trying to date, or whatever we were doing, with you still in school and us both being so busy isn't a good idea. But that doesn't mean we can't still hang out every now and then. We're bound to have a weekend where we can both spare a couple of hours once in a while, right? Who's to say we can't sneak off somewhere together?"

"It's hard enough as it is to find time for both of us."

"Just because it's hard doesn't mean we don't have to try," Butchy said, pulling away from the hug to look in her eyes.

"Do you still want to try?" she asked.

"Believe it or not, G, I do," he said with a smirk.

"So... We're not doing the 'sort of dating' thing anymore, but we're still going to try to hang out?"

"I don't see why not."

"Alright, that makes all this a little more bearable," she said, managing a small smile.

"There it is, I've been missing that," he chuckled, nudging her cheek.

"I'm going to miss you being sweet like this," she sighed wistfully.

"There'll come a day in some distant future where we can do it again, when you're not worrying about school and what your friends think."

"That feels like an eternity away."

"Yeah but it'll be here before you know it. Life moves fast. Why do you think I speed on my bike? I'm just trying to keep up with it."

"Don't speed on your bike," she scolded with a frown that he just laughed off.

"All I'm saying is that things will settle down soon, whether you've finished school yet or not. And when they do, and when you feel ready, because I think a lot of this is down to that, I'll be here for you."

"You don't have to wait for me," Giggles said.

"And you don't have to tell me what to do," he teased.

"Well," she began, taking a deep breath.

"What?"

"Why did you say it like that?"

"Because that's your idea face. What are you thinking now?"

"It's only Friday-"

"More like Saturday morning," he cut in.

"Whatever. What I mean is… I don't go back to school until Monday."

"...I'm listening."

"And I'm not doing anything tonight…" she added with a hopeful smile.

"Neither am I. How convenient," he smirked.

"So do you want to...I don't know…"

"One last time? For old time's sake?"

"I only started talking to you like a week ago," she giggled.

"Then we'd better make tonight worth that week of you putting up with me, hadn't we?" he said with a playful smile.

"So you're in?"

"Course I am. Let's go do something fun though, so it's not all sad."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, how does bowling sound? There's some alleys down at the arcade not too far from here, so we don't even have to be out late."

"I'd love that," she grinned.

"Come on then, shall we head back up the beach? I don't want you being too tired to watch me win," he teased.

"No, come on, I'll be fine. We've just sat here and talked all night, that's so boring. And I don't feel sober enough to go back home yet anyway."

"If the nice long walk here didn't sober you up then I'm sure the walk back will. Now come on," he chuckled, but Giggles was pulling him in the opposite direction. "What are you doing?"

"Playing in the water," she said matter of factly as she kicked off her sneakers.

"Are you crazy? It's the middle of the night, it's going to be freezing."

"It's summer, dumbass. It couldn't be cold if it tried," she said, letting go of his hand to run into the ocean. The waves lapped at her feet and she wiggled her toes at him with a grin. "See? It feels great!"

"You're unbelievable, did you know that? Come on, you've played in the water like the five year old you are, now it's time we got you back."

"No, come on, Mr Grumpy. Have a little fun! Jump in!" she exclaimed, wading deeper into the water so that it licked at her shins.

"I'd rather run a bike tyre over my foot," he replied bluntly.

"Don't be so boring!" she laughed, kicking a tiny wave so that the spray flew up at him.

"G, we've gotta go," he said, wiping the water from his face and staring at her incredulously.

"Come and get me then!" she challenged with a mischievous grin. She half expected him to trek back to the beach without her, especially after the agreement that they had reached. So it was a very welcome surprise when he kicked off his boots, rolled up his jeans and ran into the water after her. They may have broken things off, but they'd both earned permanent places in each other's hearts. And with the uncertainty of their relationship falling into the hands of fate, they would just have to wait and see what life threw their way.

 **I won't even try to explain why I haven't posted a new chapter of this for an eternity, but please know that I'm really sorry it's taken me this long to write. Life is crazy and sadly, writing can't be my main priority. But at least it's up now! I hope it was somewhat worth the wait.**

 **If you're interested, the song used is Live While We're Young by One Direction.**

 **I'll try my best to be more consistent with chapters, but don't get your hopes up.**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **-cherrygorilla**


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